Health in Jamaica

From Jamaica Wiki

The most common health problems of Jamaican people are vector-borne diseases, vaccine-preventable diseases, and intestinal diseases. Vaccine-preventable diseases are a great problem although about 90% of the Jamaican people have the most important vaccinations in place. Intestinal diseases are mainly cholera cases and gastroenteritis. Among the rest of the health care problems in Jamaica are the women's health and especially the large number of abortions and the complications that follow because f untrained staff intervention or unsanitary conditions. Children health problems also form a great part of the Jamaican health status. They are caused mainly of malnutrition.

Jamaica's health system is well supported to meet the needs of medical services of its society. There is a well developed, large public health network throughout the country. The network includes primary care centers and hospitals. The services they offer are usually free or at much reduced costs.

The Jamaican Government is still undertaking various steps to reform the health system of Jamaica. Some of them include decentralization, integration of services, setting some quality assurance standards, better cost sharing, improvement of the efficiency, fostering public-private partnerships, and equity.

The leading agenda behind these reforms is that the heath services provided should better match the current demands of the Jamaican people and to make the available resources much more efficient.

The health sector of Jamaica is organized into privately and publicly owned institutions. Most of the health care institutions offering ambulatory care are privately owned. The hospitals and the preventive institutions are mainly in the public sector.

The statistics show that 95% of all Jamaican patients have been treated in public hospitals. 65% of the medical expenses were also incurred in public hospitals and health care centers. The larger part of these high medical expenses is due to the treatment of trauma cases and chronic diseases.

Another sector of the personal health care system in Jamaica that is mainly in the hands of the Government is the laboratory and blood banking sector. The National Public Health Laboratory is the main laboratory and blood banking facility in Jamaica. Its services are used by the hematology, chemistry, serology, bacteriology, histology, cytology departments of the hospitals as well as for HIV testing. The Ministry of Health is also directly responsible for all x-ray examinations and other diagnostic imaging services in hospitals throughout Jamaica.

The emergency services for health in Jamaica are managed by the Ministries of Health and Local Government and the Jamaica Fire Brigade. These services are helped by funds from the Inter-American Development Bank. There are emergency rooms in several Jamaican hospitals that have been reconstructed to meet the today's standstds of emergency health care.

The Government body responsible for the heath system in Jamaica is The Ministry of Health. It manages and organizes the health sector by its bodies - the Public Health Inspectorate, the Veterinary Public Health Unit, the Environmental Control and Pharmaceutical divisions, and the Pesticide Council. Each institution has different roles – monitoring the quality of food, drugs, air, and drinking water for example.