Miller calls on ministry to look again at auditor’s health report

(CNS): The former chair of the Public Accounts Committee has called on officials at the health ministry to take another look at the auditor general’s report on healthcare provision and publish a plan to address the “troubling” concerns raised by the report. On the last day of the Legislative Assembly before the parliament was dissolved before the eight-week general election campaign, North Side MLA Ezzard Miller presented the PAC review, “Ensuring Quality Health Care and a Healthy Population”, an audit report published at the beginning of the year.

He said that PAC had been troubled by the limited management response from the health ministry to the critical audit — merely that it had noted the recommendations. Miller called on the government officials to re-assess the report, which noted a number of shortcomings and failures in the system, and produce a plan to address and implement the nine recommendations, as PAC members had been troubled by things they heard during the hearings from witnesses called to answer questions thrown up by the report.

Miller said they were concerned about the perceived capacity shortages, the lack of performance management and monitoring, and the evident lack of knowledge at ministry level about health, which he said was demonstrated during the hearings. He told his legislative colleagues that the committee “strongly recommends” that government deal with the problems as a matter of urgency, especially the need for the development of Caymanians physicians.

The Office of the Auditor General found that government does not have the resources or the information it needs to effectively manage the local healthcare system and the public cannot be assured that they are receiving quality health services or getting value for money. The report identified numerous failings, including that the ministry had failed to implement its own plan, a lack of important information, regulatory shortcomings, staff shortages and inequalities.

The PAC hearings raised more criticisms and concerns, with one local physician describing the local healthcare situation as “a farce”.