NHF CEO, Everton Anderson, Conferred with Order of Distinction

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Fund (NHF), Everton Wesley Anderson, is among the 221 Jamaicans receiving honours and awards from the Government this year.

A native of Springfield, St. James, Mr. Anderson has given almost 30 years as a healthcare administrator.

For this, he was conferred with the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander (CD) for Public Service, in particular the Development of Healthcare.

The award was presented by Governor-General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Allen, during the National Honours and Awards Ceremony at King’s House on Monday (October 17), which was celebrated as National Heroes Day.

Mr. Anderson has held management positions at various levels of the public health system. These include Western Regional Director and head of the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay, St. James.

He recently earned the distinction of Board Certification in Healthcare Management and is now a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Mr. Anderson’s most notable assignment, to date, is the recent implementation of emergency responses to manage the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The administrator also oversaw the buy-in of clinicians, the development of cardiology and dialysis services, and the introduction of neurosurgery, as well as the opening of a chemotherapy suite at the CRH.

Under his tenure, the NHF was conferred with the 2021 Jamaica Institute of Engineers President’s Award of Excellence in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2018, the agency became the overall winner in the second annual Public Bodies’ Corporate Governance, staged by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), and copped the Jamaica Customer Service Association/PSOJ top award in 2020. It has received scores of other national awards for good governance and excellence in service.

The CEO says while he and the NHF team are elated at the recognitions, the greatest reward for them is when clients are getting the services they provide.

“When we are given health projects to do, and we have completed hundreds of them, including modern cancer treatment centres without any cost overruns, that gives us more joy than the awards, because our work is benefiting the people of this country,” he tells JIS News.

Mr. Anderson says he is, nonetheless, humbled by the national recognition conferred on him and thanks the hard-working staff at the NHF and colleagues at the various agencies he has served, for their support, dedication and inspiration.

Noting that all the NHF programmes have had “reasonable reach”, the CEO says the team strives to do things better and reach more persons.

He maintains that the health-promotion initiatives for schools will produce positive results, where more people will practise healthy lifestyles.

According to Mr. Anderson, having served in a hospital setting for many years, he has learned a big lesson, which is people must seek to remain healthy, because there is a “thin line between life and death” and things can change for the worse “rapidly”.

“It is important that we treasure and embrace health and healthy living because things can change with our bodies. Everybody has to think and look at how they can change [their] lifestyle and stay healthy,” he shares.

Mr. Anderson has been the NHF CEO and an ex-Officio member of the agency’s Board since January 2013, obtained his Bachelor of Science in Management Studies and his Master of Business Administration in Public Sector Management from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.

His wealth of health industry experience has guided the NHF to notable accomplishments, including receiving the Public Sector Corporate Governance Award for the 2016/2017 financial year.

Mr. Anderson serves as the Co-Chair of the LINAC Steering Committee, which is responsible for the establishment of the two new National Cancer Treatment Centres, among the largest investments in healthcare in Jamaica.

He currently serves on the Board of Cornwall College and is a former Director for Maldon High, Herbert Morrison Technical High School and the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce.

A past student of Springfield All-Age School, he says teachers at the institution and residents in the community, as well as his strict parents, helped him to focus on education, while his “further growth and development continued at Cornwall College, and I owe a lot to that institution, where I had a great seven years”.

The National Health Fund (NHF) is an agency of the Ministry of Health and Wellness and was established in 2003 by the National Health Fund Act.

The agency provides financial support to the national healthcare system in order to improve its effectiveness and the affordability of care for the Jamaican population.

It manages 49 Public-Private Sector Pharmacy Partnerships offering services to the public, to manage chronic illnesses.