MINISTER OF HEALTH Donville Inniss contends that public condemnation of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has fallen, even as the health care institution sees an average of 40 000 people annually in the Accident and Emergency Department and 21 910 hospitalizations.
Inniss made the disclosure yesterday in the House of Assembly as he introduced a resolution to transfer $10.7 million from the Consolidated Fund to supplement Government’s expenditure. Of that amount, $10.2 million is to be used by the QEH.
Offering background to developments at the hospital, the St James South Member of Parliament said the QEH could never accurately predict the number of people who would use its services, but noted that the $10 million expenditure was justified and needed for the institution’s adequate financing.
Comparing previous budgetary allocations to QEH over the years, Inniss said in 2007, $124 million was budgeted and an additional $18 million supplemented; in 2008, $156 million allocated and $18.9 million supplemented; in 2009, $185 million was expended; in 2010, $187 million was spent; and in 2011, $145.5 million was budgeted and it now needed an additional $10.2 million.
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