QEH chief wants more on preventive care

Chief executive officer of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Dr Dexter James, is disappointed that researchers at the Professor Mickey Walrond Scientific Symposium have shown limited interest in the area of preventive care.James made this observation at this year’s symposium at the hospital’s auditorium recently.“I have noted from the sessions that of the 16 research topics presented, two were in the operational area and 14 in the clinical or interventional area. There has been no interest in the area of preventive care.“For example, it would appear as though very little impact is made on behaviour through the various initiatives [for] promoting healthy lifestyles and wellness. As such, more research needs to be done to understand the root causes for the apparent lack of personal responsibility for one’s health.”Greater financial burdenHe said this country could not afford to lose the battle in preventive care as complications arising from diabetes, hypertension, stress, strokes, heart disease and so on present a greater financial burden to the QEH and the cost of health care.“I would like to challenge the organisers to encourage and direct attention [to] research in the area of prevention,” he said.James was also of the view the agenda for research should start to focus attention on operational areas “which can bring a better understanding to the many administrative and operational inefficiencies affecting our health care system and, more specifically, the QEH”.He said the hospital board had restructured the administrative arrangements for the facilitation and processing of applications to conduct research at the QEH.James said that on August 1, the board would establish an Internal Research Review Committee chaired by the health planner.The committee would have the authority to approve internal applications once such applications meet the usual criteria such as rigour in methodology, ethical considerations, approval by head of department, and relevance to the QEH.