Southern N.H.I. still in preparatory stages
This week the Government of Belize announced that Health Sector Reform continues with the “roll out” of the National Health Insurance to parts of southern Belize. But as Patrick Jones found out, Belizeans won’t be able to reap the benefits of the scheme just yet.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
The announced June first roll out of N.H.I. to the south was welcome news for thousands of residents of Stann Creek and Toledo. But what the government press release did not say is that services under N.H.I. will not be available until October at the earliest. Director of N.H.I. at Social Security, Dr. Ramon Figueroa, says there is a good deal of preparatory field work that still needs to be done.
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, Director, Nat?l. Health Insurance
?It would entail basically a lot of training of medical personnel, administrative personnel in protocol, management protocols, procedures, organising the health teams in the south, ensuring that the basic clinics have the necessary equipment. So all of that is part of the rolling out process.?
The system will employ the lessons learned from the pilot project and subsequent provision of heavily subsidized health care services to portions of the Belize District. At a cost of nearly eleven million dollars this year alone being spent on the N.H.I., Figueroa says slight adjustments will be made to accommodate the south.
Dr. Ramon Figueroa
?The estimates?we have done our projections. The first year, this year, where we are doing the southside of Belize and extending the system to the south of the country, we project that it?s going to cost us eleven million dollars once we have covered the services presently in the southside, plus all that needs to be done in the south of Belize for the next year.?
Dr. Peter Allen, Dir. Planning Unit, Min. of Health
?In line with the principle of equity, we are offering essentially the package of services that are essentially available on the southside of Belize. This includes a package of primary care services with additional secondary care services in the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology and paediatrics. And by primary care services we?re really talking about all of these services which are normally provided by a general practitioner.?
President of the Belize Medical and Dental Association Dr. Andre Sosa says the lessons from the Belize City experience will greatly assist doctors in treating patients in the south under the new arrangement.
Dr. Andre Sosa, Pres., Belize Medical & Dental Assn.
?Every venture brings its own challenges certainly. But I think that if we take the experience from southside we can expect quite a significant on the health status of the south. The south has very particular challenges, as do other sectors, other parts of the country. But if we look at the distances which separate some of these rural communities, if we look at the onslaught of HIV/AIDS on the southern part of our country, principally the Stann Creek District, we can see that having greater access can immediately make an impact on changing the lives of the population of the south.?
Dr. Peter Allen
?In the south of the country the entire population of the south, approximately sixty thousand. We of course use for the purposes of planning, the figures from the 2000 census and then we add two point seven percent annual growth rate per year, as approved by the Central Bank.?
And for a cash strapped government, where will the money come from to finance N.H.I. in the south?
Dr. Ramon Figueroa
?There is three primary sources that we know are going to contribute to the financing of this scheme. The Social Security Board has approved, based on actuarial reviews and we can afford to invest in health, over the next three years have approved fifteen million dollars. Obviously that is conditional, there?s some requirements before the board releases those fifteen million dollars. And the conditions are that number one, the Ministry of Health also transfers some of they?re already invested into primary care over to this fund and that the government now takes up the remaining portion of that budget into this fund.?
Dr. Peter Allen
?Those in the field of public health, we would say that it?s always a challenge to find money to provide quality social services, including health services, for your entire population. But we would suggest that we cannot afford not to provide that quality care to our people.?
Sosa says doctors are willing to do their part to make the programme work.
Dr. Andre Sosa
?I think that the Belize Medical and Dental Association has already shown that it is quite willing to make sacrifices and to make their just contribution. In the last five years in our participation in the Health Sector Reform we have contributed time and effort, which approaches close to five hundred thousand dollars, that?s time that we have put into the process.?
Patrick Jones, for News Five.
