Cuts won’t affect health care at QEH

There will be no compromise on patient care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), despite a $35 million cut in its budget, says Minister of Health John Boyce.
Speaking to the media this morning after leading Samoa’s Minister of Health Talalelei Tuitama on a tour of the hospital, Boyce made it clear that the expenditure reduction as outlined in the 2013 Budget earlier this month would not reduce the quality of health care delivery.
He however acknowledged that wastage had to be tackled to maintain the level of efficiency at an institution where things had “become unmanageable”.
“We have to reduce the costs of the operation, we have to tackle wastage [and] we have to look at services that we can improve with efficiencies and strictly manage, especially our labour deployment programme.
This is going to be part of the focus going forward to save some monies. It has become unmanageable,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) warned that the $35 million cut would undermine quality health care and could put lives at risks.
Full reports in tomorrow’s DAILY NATION