The only way the Government can reduce the ballooning expenses in the health sector relating to the increased demand by the public for treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCD) is to introduce a national policy aimed at promoting healthy living.
Underscoring the urgent need for an NCD policy, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh yesterday said the answer was not more healthcare but rather, better health offerings and a culture change in the way society addressed the issue of NCDs.
Speaking during a media conference at the ministry’s head office, Port-of-Spain, Deyalsingh said people had to understand the dangerous and long-lasting effects of consuming the wrong foods, a lack of exercise, smoking, alcohol abuse and the general failure to take care of themselves.
Seeking to drive home just how costly it was to continue to provide treatment for persons in the public health system, Deyalsingh said approximately $40 billion had been spent from 2005 to 2016, with $2.6 billion in 2009, and climbing to $6.08 billion for this year.
Claiming that the bill was creeping up yearly, the minister said he was concerned that it would eventually reach a level where Government would be unable to provide the quality of healthcare the public was demanding, much of which was associated with the treatment of NCDs.
Acknowledging that the more affluent persons enjoyed healthier and longer lives, Deyalsingh said it was a proven fact that the more vulnerable persons who occupied the lower economic strata led shorter lives marred by ill-health.
Admitting that T&T had not kept up with the collection of statistics which was important to drive policy development, the minister said a special NCD unit would be formed to implement the policy when it was approved by Cabinet as significant data collection was needed.
Vowing that latest policy would not become a dust-collector on a shelf, Deyalsingh said his ministry was in the process of converting the cancer registry to also include records of NCDs and that the data collected would be used to develop a school intervention programme for both primary and secondary school students, as well as national screening protocols for pregnant persons and the early detection of cervical cancer.
President of the World Medical Association, Prof Sir Michael Marmot, said once the ministry tackled the root causes of the social determinants of health and the inequality that existed throughout the health system, only then would it succeed in reducing the public’s dependence on free healthcare which was proving to be quite costly to the Government.
Following his visit to T&T for the Medical Association’s annual medical conference on the weekend, Marmot said he was aware that there was a “real desire in T&T to get serious about action on the social determinants of health and to improve the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.”
He said the end result would be to create a healthier population and reduce the inequalities that determined the level of healthcare being accessed.
See Page A10