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Contact:
Chris Satney
Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - Work on a Quality Management System for the
island’s health sector is said to be at an advanced stage. The Quality
Management System provides a scientific step-by-step mechanism to ensure, within
the health sector, the achievement of continuous improvement, reduction of
errors, and reduction of variation of service which will cause wastage.
A Quality Assurance Committee headed by the Director of the Bureau of Standards
Dr. Allison Plumber is facilitating the formulation of the health standards by
advising and making recommendations on systems that would allow for sustainable
quality care in the island’s Health Sector.
Dr. Plumber says quality can no longer be an attribute of competition but is
required for basic survival. She says the Quality Management System that is
being promoted to the health sector is being used as a vehicle on which services
in health will be improved.
“The standards that we are promoting are not different from what is available
internationally—and by all means we want to ensure that the services that are
offered to our patients within St. Lucia, meet the same level of standards as
those they will access overseas. Likewise those that will be put on the overseas
list—that they meet acceptable standards,” Dr. Plumber said.
The formulation of the Quality Management System, according to officials of the
Ministry of Health, Human Services, Family Affairs and Gender Relations, will
enhance the process of overall reform of the island’s health sector and the
formulation of a National Universal Health Care Programme. The system, according
to Chief medical Officer Dr. Stephen King, has to thrive on an established
framework that includes regulatory aspects relating to professionals, service
providers and protocols of treatment and proper health information system.
“Our nurses, our doctor, our lab technicians, X-ray technicians and even
cleaners are all professionals—what they are lacking is that framework that
keeps them driving down a line that has management engaged in driving and giving
them the resources and training that is necessary to keep them in a continuous
quality improvement. It takes years but the health sector more than any other
sector is ready now,” The Chief Medical Officer said.
The Universal Health Care Programme when established will ensure that Saint
Lucians have access to quality health services, regardless of their financial
status. The new system will be funded with a fixed consumption tax on goods.
That proposed flat tax is a 3.5 percent - 4 percent increase on the
environmental levy, which now stands at 1 percent – 1.5 percent. Basic goods
such as food and clothing have been exempted. The tax will raise an estimated 30
million dollars, with government matching that amount as part of its overall
contribution to health care.
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