Hospital beds short of population needs
(CNS): Answering a parliamentary question about the number of inpatient hospital beds in the Cayman Islands, Health Minister Sabrina Turner gave an answer that does not arithmetically compute. She said that there are currently 226 beds across all of the public and private facilities. But when she broke down the numbers, they added up to 244.
The minister told her fellow MPs on Monday that the new Health City hospital at Camana Bay, which will soon officially open, will add another 53 beds, and plans for the government hospital in George Town include an additional eleven beds by the end of next year.
Turner explained that the World Health Organization (WHO) offers a benchmark ratio for hospital beds to people around the world, which is 3.4 beds per thousand. She said that with a population of 83,000, Cayman needs 282.2 beds to meet that benchmark. But, basing her answer on the 226 figure, she said the 56-bed deficit would be largely covered once the new Health City hospital begins taking patients.
Answering the question from opposition member David Wight, she said that the HSA hospital in George Town had 104 beds not including the neonatal unit and accident and emergency, Faith Hospital on Cayman Brac had 18, Health City Cayman Islands in East End had 104, and Doctors Hospital had 18. This comes to a total of 244.
However, HCCI states on its website that its East End facility has 110 beds, while the HSA says on its website that it has 127 beds, though it does not specify if these are all inpatient beds. This would make the total number of hospital beds available 273.
But Turner’s population figure of 83,000 is also debatable. The current official number was just short of 85,000 as of October last year, and with the population rising by more than 10% each year, the headcount has now likely passed the 90,000 mark.
Moreover, the official population figure has been considered short of reality for several years, with suggestions that the realistic figure is closer to 100,000 people. That would imply that right now, even before considering future needs, the country should have around 340 beds.
If Turner’s figure of 226 beds is correct, even with the 64 additional beds expected in the near future, Cayman would have 50 fewer than it needs. If the breakdown figure of 244 is correct, there would be a shortage of 32 beds. But if the website figures are correct, the islands will have 337 beds with the additional ones, which is just three shy of the target figure, so long as the population does not pass 100,000.
But another factor that impacts the number of beds needed, which the minister did not take into account in her answer, is the number of overnight visitors, which averages more than 8,000, as well as some 25,000 cruise passengers that swell the population every week. While they usually depart unscathed, there are many occasions when they require medical assistance.
However, Turner told MPs that other more significant factors than headcount impact the need for beds, explaining that the relative health of a population determines the demand for care, so healthier populations require fewer beds. She also noted that a country’s healthcare system plays a part in preventing and reacting to health issues, and access to high-tech medical services reduces the need for inpatient care.
She said that local services are good quality and accessible, and the critical issue is not so much the number of beds but whether we are denying anyone care. The answer to that is no, she said. “We are not aware of any instances where care can’t be provided care due to a lack of beds,” the minister said as she concluded her response to the question.
However, over the last few months, CNS has heard anecdotal stories from families who have not been refused care but who have struggled to get the quality, timely care they need because of a shortage of staff and beds at either government or private facilities.
When it comes to outpatient services, the Accident and Emergency Unit is increasingly struggling to cope with the sheer volume of people, and social media is littered with posts about poor levels of care at various medical facilities.
CNS has contacted the hospital and the ministry to clarify what plans are in the works to address the possible bed shortage, the need to expand A&E and whether HCCI in East End will become an emergency room provider alongside the HSA hospital in George Town.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
It’s time for us to start demanding these ministers be qualified to lead the ministry they are assigned to.
We just got a co-pay bill related to a surgery from 2022. Our hospitals are not keeping passing-grade patient records on their accounts receivables – perhaps in hopes of having those fees written-off, and then collecting twice.
This is not a “healthier population”. Addiction problems run rampant from obesity, alcoholism, drug addiction, social services abuses, to other unchecked costly dependencies.
Nobody Ever TalksAbout Prevention. Toxic, polluted and poisoned environment in Cayman is the #1 cause of chronic and acute conditions, congenital abnormalities and “rare” diseases in newborns.
Humans are so primitive that they only respond to what they can see, touch, hear and smell. They can only see the Dump’s fires and smell its stench. But they keep ignoring even that.
The amounts/volumes of hazardous for health and environment substances is staggering, but it has never been measured, there is no awareness of any kind. Year after year there are only breast cancer awareness campaigns. I believe even martians are aware of breast cancer on Earth. But nobody is aware of what is causing it.
It is mind boggling to focus only on treatments, hospital beds when microplastic and toxic substances are found in umbilical cords of newborns, breast milk and pretty much everywhere else – air we breathe, water we drink, meat and plant we eat.
We can pay 1M for a shot to save a baby, but would do nothing to prevent congenital abnormalities. Even FDA warns about potential danger for a developing fetus from too many ultrasounds. How many women are aware about it? How many keep their EMF emitting devices near or on a pregnant belly?
This is just one example of the many hazards fetuses are exposed to.
I don’t even want to bring into my comment cancer rates in Cayman, for it is common sense. Besides, cancer is a very lucrative business and there is still no cure, just 5 years survival. With some rare exceptions of course.
By the way how many do know that so called preventative scans do cause cancer?
So when one needs a hospital bed, it is too late – from now on it is about survival, not cure. No amount of broccoli or supplements, let alone medicine would make one healthy again.
If I were the Cayman Health Minister, I’d investigate every case of a congenital abnormality- what, where and how it went wrong.
Where does the mother lives, works. Where did she live work before conceiving a child.
What potential environmental hazards was she exposed to before and during her pregnancy.
What are her eating habits.
Was she getting enough sun exposure? etc.
I’d have a map of cancer cases. Do we have a cluster cancer areas- areas where cancer cases are higher than expected? I’d at least start with that.
I’d encourage adults of ages do a stool DNA test (Cologuard) once a year. Its cost is $50.
Put some beds in the Ebola tent. How can a Territory with around 100,000 residents that spends close to US$100,000,000 a year on healthcare get so little value for money?
An immigration consultant appointed minster of health.
Sabrina Turner gave an answer that does not arithmetically compute. She said that there are currently 226 beds across all of the public and private facilities. But when she broke down the numbers, they added up to 244.
It’s called sharing a “bed space”. I see adverts for it all the time on eCay.
I thought it was bad enough when the people on minimum wage had to share their regular bed with someone else, but now it looks like it has even extended to when they get sick and have to be hospitalized.
Yet, the Work Permit Board is still issuing work permits to anyone who asks for them without any checks on where their new employees will be living, or what other jobs they will be doing outside their 40-hour work week.
Our neighbourhood is continuously flyered with dial-a-Jamaican services for permits that should never have been granted. There are thousands of migrant workers packed into bunkbed dorms in the boss’s garage, paying them rent! These human abuses need to stop.