



| DOCTORS ALLEGATIONS CONFIRMED ? The continous allegation by the Islands medical doctors that there is gross inefficiency in the management of the Nations Health Budget was confirmed yesterday with the leaking of a Report that showed depite the so called 'Regionalisation' of the Health services the Lion share of the health Budget is still used in payment of the salaries of an 'overstaffed' Ministry ih Kingston. The Minister of Health Horace Daley, had to go on defensive trying to explain changes that had been made following the report of a study done in 2003, and had been supressed by the government before now. He explained the Government had complied with the Report which specifically noted an overstaffed, overpaid administrative staff as the reason for the Ministry's failure to acheive a balanced Budget......................................... |
| .............Medical Doctors curently locked in with the Government on wage negotiations have been adamant in the fact that most of the Ministry's wage bill goes into an overinflated administrative salaries making it difficult sometimes to adequately pay Doctors, Nurses and other functional cum technical staff of the health sector. The Report specifically recommended a 50% reduction in the staff at the Ministry's Headquaters in Kingston, this was aimed at reducing recurrent expenditure by about 30%, but results currently showed no significant change in the recurrent expenditure bill of the admniterative staff of the Ministry since 2003 The Island Doctors argue that there was no need for the number of administerative positions that currently exist in the Ministry, and that efficiency demands curtailing of the present recurrent bill due to this excess, and that the Ministry be run by health professionals and or administrators with adequate health background. Meanwhile the wage negotiation between the Doctors and the government is still deadlocked. This is against the backdrop of recent resurgence of complaints of inadequate facilities in most government hospitals by Doctors |
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