Boyce: Change lifestyles

BARBADIANS have been warned again to pay greater attention to primary health care.
Minister of Health John Boyce told the House of Assembly today that locals can prevent an escalation in health costs especially when treating non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and strokes.
Boyce said the Ministry of Finance was grappling with the demands of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and other health care insitutions in providing care and cautioned Barbadians to change their lifestyles to avoid non-communicable diseases which created costs that could not be contemplated for Barbados.
He said Government would continue to expand the services at polyclinics with a view to creating a data base which could be used throughout the health system.
He said, “I believe firmly in the view that  we need to start at some place. So we need to make that information that is collected in our data bases in our polyclinics immediately accessible,  under proper security, to those who may have to make decisions at another time – whether at QEH, geriatric institutions or private doctors.”
Boyce also said Barbados needed to develop a financial model that would offer a suitable system of health care.
He spoke during debate on Government’s White Paper on Ageing.
He also lauded the private elderly care institutions and said his government was working with them to remove the bureaucracy around them without contravening any regulations. (JS)