The Ins & Outs of Barbados 2022

138 Good Health Health Care in Barbados By Dr. Emma Dash Free healthcare is available to all Barbadians publicly through a network of polyclinics that offer primary and some secondary care. Tertiary care is provided by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH). There is also a well-developed private healthcare sector where patients can pay for medical services. These private services make up for the shortfalls in the public healthcare. There are nine government polyclinics and two outpatient clinics around the island. Polyclinics employ general and family physicians that manage both acute and chronic illnesses. There are also specialty clinics that vary from clinic to clinic on certain days of the week, which include dermatology, psychiatry, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, podiatry, speech therapy, counselling, nutrition, physiotherapy, STI (sexually transmitted infections) and dentistry. The main gap in healthcare coverage in the public sector is the inaccessibility to specialist services at theQEH, wherepatients experience long waiting times for appointments to specialty clinics and for investigations such as, echocardiograms, colonoscopies, ultrasounds and CT scans. There is also a high demand at the polyclinics resulting in an overwhelming high patient to doctor ratio, therefore waiting time may be prolonged. The Barbados Drug Service (BDS) ensures quality pharmaceutical drugs are provided to Barbadians at a reasonable cost. Under the BDS there is also a Special Benefit Service (SBS), which provides free medications for patients over the age of 65 or under the age of 16. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a 600-bed institution that provides a wide range of acute and ambulatory care. It also contains two well-equipped intensive care units. It runs the only blood bank in the island. This hospital is staffed by a wide variety of highly trained physicians. Complex surgeries take place here and include, but are not limited to, neurosurgery, open- heart surgery, joint replacements, renal transplants, ophthalmic surgery, laparoscopic general and gynaecological surgery. QEH offers both private and public government-funded healthcare. The QEH is an accredited teaching hospital and is associated with The Faculty of Medical Science of the University of the West Indies. The accident and emergency department at the QEH is definitely over-utilised and under- staffed. However, they do an excellent job of triaging patients. Most life threatening emergencies are dealt with immediately. Barbados also has five geriatric hospitals, a psychiatric hospital and multiple childcare facilities that are all government funded. In my opinion, combining public and private health services, by way of commissioning health service contracts with the private sector, will provide a large and beneficial improvement. This has already started on a small scale. For example, out-sourcing dialysis services by the QEH, geriatric services under Alternative Care for the Elderly Programme, and out-sourcing of ultrasounds and x-rays by polyclinics. However, the reach of these services is limited due to the cap on the annual financial allocation. The National Healthcare System in Barbados would benefit tremendously from an injection of major funding.