The Sunday Gleaner of April 12 carried a story which stated that Dr Winston Dawes, former president of the Medical Associa-tion of Jamaica, thought that the current budget was not adequate to prevent the publichealth system from buckling under pressure emanating from increased demands since user fees have been abolished by the Golding administration.

There are two points that need to be made here to depict the flaw in the goodly doctor's points. First, assuming that the numbers reported in The Gleaner report are accurate, Dr Dawe's concern is unwarranted with respect to the basic amount needed for the non-salary amount of the budget. He has actually mis-spoken when he stated that a minimum of $10 billion was needed for the non-salary segment of the health system. The reality is that the current budget has, in fact, surpassed this suggested amount as the amount available for this portion of the health system is $10.2 billion.

Rudimentary calculations

The Gleaner's readers can confirm the above point from this quote taken from your news article, 'Health Alert! Free Care Drains Public Hospitals' (April 12, 2009). All you need to do is some rudimentary calculations. Here is the quote:

"The Government has allocated $30 billion of the $547-billion budget to health. This is five per cent of the total budget, or 13 per cent of the money, that the Government will spend on non-debt expenditure.

"Of the allocation, $14.7 billion is for the compensation of employees, $1.3 billion for travel expenses and subsistence, and $3.8 billion for grants and contributions."

Final point

The second and final point is that the reported increase in patients by 69 per cent from the period April to September 2008 speaks volumes to the need for the user fee not to be reinstated.

This increase in usage simply depicts that there was a number of the poorer classes whose medical needs were not being brought to the attention of medical practitioners because of pecuniary challenges. Any move to reinstate this user fee would mean less, needed health-care for the poorer and older classes of our country.

The prime minister's move to continue to ensure that this cohort of needy individuals get medical attention is an excellent one.

I am, etc.,

JOSHUA SPENCER

joshuaspencer@rogers.com

Toronto, Canada