There is one consequence of Jamaica's grave problem of criminal violence to which relatively little public attention has been given it impacts a vast number of people on a continuing basis.

It is perhaps not so obvious that violent crime affects the delivery of health care, apart from the fact that flare-ups in some communities sometimes prevent doctors and nurses from going to their jobs, or force hospital and clinics to scale back their operations. But, as this newspaper reported on Friday, Jamaicans are paying a pretty penny, literally, for the society's endemic violence.

According to the Health Ministry, its cost for treating trauma caused by violence has tripled in the past three years to $2.2 billion. Looked at another way, the cost of treating trauma has vastly outstripped inflation, which, cumulatively, has risen by about 30 per cent over the past three years. Or, the cost of trauma treatment will eat up over 11 per cent of the Health Ministry's recurrent budget for the fiscal year that ends in April.

As difficult as this may be to comprehend, the numbers, on the face of it, make sense. For the past calendar year alone, there were 1,571 homicides in Jamaica. That number was only slightly lower than in 2006. Many of the victims do not die on the spot, but receive some form of hospital treatment. They demand recuperative care, taking up expensive time and space in emergency rooms and treatment wards.

Yet, while our focus is often on the homicides, there are several hundred other victims of violence each year who do not die, but demand long-term medical or specialist treatment. They take up hospital beds, demand time in operating theatres and command the attention of therapists and other specialists.

There are other costs, too. Every hospital bed occupied by a patient with a gunshot wound, a knife stab, a machete chop or some other trauma, is a bed unavailable for the patient with a chronic or life-threatening disease. The surgeon who is operating on a victim of violence is unavailable to treat the cancer patient. The upshot: stress on limited resources and a decline in the quality of hospital care all round.

Of course, the impact does not end there. Many of the victims of violence are killed or maimed at th of their productive lives. Their skills, education and training are lost to the economy and to wealth creation. The social consequences, too, are obvious.

The implication of all this is clear: Dealing with violence in Jamaica is not merely a policing and security matter; it has an impact on those of us who may feel ourselves insulated from its worst manifestations.

All of us, for instance, have a stake in a decent health-care system and a functioning economy that delivers growth. Maybe if we can continue to break down the cost of crime in its component parts, enlightened self-interest will galvanise Jamaicans to be active partners in the search for solutions.

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