Glendon Hospital, St. Johns
The Ministry of Health is close to begin construction of a new hospital to be located at the current site in St. John’s, which at one time occupied the building compound of the St. John’s school. This hospital the Minister of Health, Education, Youth, Culture, Sports and Community Services says, “The numbers keep moving between eight to nine million US dollars.”
The minister reported that they are expecting to see a 38-bed hospital with diagnostic, clinical and recovery spaces that are up to international standards. “We’ll inherit a property which is a gift to people of Montserrat. It will be100% grant funded,” he declared, speaking to a local press corps in late November.
Minister of Health. Hon. Colin Riley
The press conference was called to hear from a consultant who had come to the island to conduct a study reviewing the entire health system. The aim the study was to “ find ways to make it more efficient and more effective,” with service quality and service delivery as chief among the outcomes.
Consultant Mr. Lasse Neilsen
The minister in introducing Lasse Neilsen the consultant who said a financing system needs to be put in place to ensure service quality will be at a high level. “That’s our commitment,” he said.
Mr. Neilsen reported that during his 10 days on the island he, with the assistance of Mrs. Angella Skerritt had about 32 meetings with a stakeholders on the issue of health financing.“
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Owen
Describing his mission and getting to the real issue, considering that the Ministry will never be able to pass on the cost of administering health in Montserrat, “…we need to calculate these unit costs to form what is actually the true costing of these services…We have also looked into how expenditures actually have developed in recent years on health, and we can see that quadrupling of expenditures since 1985…” Neilsen said.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Michael Owen supported the study and spoke to the “pressures in health care system in general,” which he said, “are largely around the aging population; and (which,) as we get older sadly becomes less healthy and that incurs greater costs for the government, if that spending is borne by government…”
The Minister reported on the stage at which the new hospital is at, noting that the negotiations with DFID have not just been about the new a hospital. “It’s been about a lot more; it’s actually been about new systems working within the hospital…”
Neilsen was to try and look at alternative mixed ways of funding the health service…government expenditure. He would also look at and report on issues of equity, whether the current arrangements are fair on everybody and any future systems, which are put in terms of health care expenditure, which should be fair to all.
Finally it was noted during the press conference, “…health care is expensive and we like everybody else have to have some sort of safety netting, because we do have people who cannot afford health care and so we must have some sort of safety netting…”
