THE MINISTRY of Health has attempted to assure the public that despite working with reduced budget and its attempts to reduce waste, the public is unlikely to be faced with any drastic cuts in services.
Responding to concerns raised by stakeholders in the public health service including junior doctors, Grace Allen-Young, the Ministry's Permanent Secretary, said the Regional Health Authorities had been asked "to review expenditure and prioritise activities, accelerate waste reduction strategies and seek further improvement in efficiency.
"There is no indication that these strategies will double the waiting time or result in drastic reduction in services," she said.
The Junior Doctors Association (JDA) had expressed concern that such cuts could mean a reduction in staff at many of the island's health care institutions and implied that patients would have a longer wait ahead of them and delayed treatment in casualty and emergency rooms as well as possible downscaling in health clinics.
The Health Ministry did not comment on possible staff cuts in the future but pointed out that the first supplementary estimates for 2001-2002, passed in Parliament last Wednesday, had given the Ministry a $615 million increase in its recurrent budget. About $150 million had been transferred from the capital budget, putting the total Ministry budget for the current fiscal year at $7.7 billion for recurrent expenditure and $410 million for capital expenditure.
