Spencer Says Health Sector Must Focus on Social Justice

Minister of Health and the Environment, Rudyard Spencer, has said that the health sector’s response to the current global financial crisis, must be focused on social justice.
Mr. Spencer said that health policies “must seek to help the most vulnerable retain as much of their disposable income for necessities such as safe food, decent shelter and transportation.”
The minister’s address to the third annual Advancements in Medicine Conference 2009, at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona on Monday(Feb. 23), read by Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry, Dr. Sheila Campbell-Forrester, pointed out that due to the financial downturn, implications for global health indicates that there will be a negative impact on spending, services, health seeking behaviour and outcomes.
He said that an additional 44 million people will suffer from malnutrition; the unemployed will increase by 15 to 20 million or 50 million in the worst-case scenario; and 200 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty, this year.
He said that the situation will be made more difficult for governments in low and middle-income countries, where private financial inflows have fallen from US$1 trillion to half of that amount.He suggested that governments advance “pro-poor and pro-health” public spending to protect the incomes of the poor and safeguard their health outcomes, as in the case of the Jamaican government’s removal of public hospital’s user fees.
“Jamaica’s experience with the abolition of user fees shows, in its tenth month, that those who use the public health facilities have saved over $1 billion in disposable income,” he noted.
The conference, which is being held February 23-28, under the theme, Transforming Research into Policy and Practice, is a partnership between the University of Minnesota, the UWI, the Organisation for Strategic Development in Jamaica, (OSDJ) and the Ministry of Health and the Environment.
Workshops and lectures will be held during the week at the University Hospital of the West Indies(UHWI), the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), the Bustamante Hospital for Children and the Mandeville and Cornwall Regional Hospitals.
Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Professor Archibald McDonald, in his remarks stated that UWI has a proud record of transforming research into practice.He also pointed to the University’s contribution to early childhood development, and the work of the Kingston paediatric HIV/AIDS group, which has resulted in a reduction in mother to child transmission of HIV from 27 percent to less than five percent.
“These are just a few of the many research outputs which have informed healthcare policies, or directly affected patient care, all done at the UWI Mona campus,” he said.