NHF to Ramp Up Service Delivery

National Health Fund (NHF) service delivery, targeting further reduction in healthcare costs, continues in earnest this financial year.

This will be achieved through ongoing implementation of several engagements, including drug subsidy provision for specified chronic illnesses under the Individual Benefits Programme and Jamaica Drug for the Elderly Programme (JADEP), and project funding for the Ministry of Health through the Institutional Benefit Programme.

As stated in the 2019/20 Public Bodies Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, the support to the Ministry will cover a range of prevention and promotional activities as well as infrastructural development and improvement.

Other programmed activities include health fairs, with about 100,000 persons to be screened for various illnesses.

The NHF will also be further promoting the Quick Prescript application, which was introduced in 2018 to reduce the waiting time for clients accessing medication via public pharmacies.

The application allows users to initiate the processing of prescriptions using smartphones.

Individuals are alerted when the medication is ready, which may be collected on presentation of the original prescription.

Clients without smartphone access can utilise the Quick Prescript kiosks situated in selected pharmacies.

Meanwhile, the NHF is projecting operational surplus of $1.18 billion, while the staff complement will increase to 573 from 558 in 2018/19.