MORE THAN three-quarters of the population is suffering from a chronic non-communicable disease, Minister of Health John Boyce told the House of Assembly yesterday.
This, he added, could be the reason behind the high absenteeism rate in both the public and private sector.
Boyce, contributing to the Estimates Debate, said at least 80 per cent of the population was suffering from “one kind of non-communicable or the other”.
“This,” he told the House, “is an impractical and unreasonable condition to perpetuate. It would start, if you want to take the discussion to its fullest, to explain the chronic diseases we have reported in some of our organisations of absenteeism because a couple of years ago we had a report which spoke to the fact that absenteeism in the public service was around 30 per cent. But truth be told, it was not much better in the private sector. So we have a very severe problem.” (HLE)
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