Bridgetown.
Heath officials are reassuring Barbadians they will continue to have access to quality health care and that those who require service, even when there may be shortages, will be provided for.
This was consensus at a press conference yesterday afternoon which included Health Minister John Boyce, the Acting CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Louise Bobb and other senior medical personnel.
The assurance follows yesterday’s news that six pharmaceutical companies had stopped supplying a number of drugs pending the payment of outstanding monies.
Bobb said steps were being made to pay or lessen the debt owed to the companies. She adds that the hospital has not been "hung out to dry" by its suppliers.
She stressed that when the entity has been in trouble in the past, the suppliers have also responded favourably. She admitted that the QEH is facing cash flow problems and indicated the island's lone public hospital will work with suppliers to find a solution.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Joy St John told the press conference that a smarter, hardier strain of mosquito and climate change have apparently combined to sharply increase the number of dengue cases in Barbados.
She confirmed dengue cases had jumped to 604, compared to 233, in the same period last year, and indicated that climate change had something to do with the increase.
“In Barbados, the mosquito is developing and going through its cycle of maturity faster, so the mosquitoes are, we believe, affected by climate change,” she told a news conference at the Ministry of Health in Culloden Road, St Michael.
“So the effect of the climate change on the mosquito is probably part of the reason why we have seen some of this increase as well. It’s almost like a perfect storm because we also have the issue of the rainfall, the issue of less than exemplary practices, because this mosquito is domesticated.”
“This particular strain of the dengue virus has not been around in circulation, so there are several Barbadians who can now be affected by the strain No. 1 and so that is why we are seeing so many cases", she added.
SBrathwaithe
