Minister Of State in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Davidson Ishmael is warning Barbadians that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a major threat to the country’s progress.
He says that NCDs are a heavy burden on the budgets of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and Barbados Drug Service (BDS), and drains the country of an estimated $145 million in productivity each year.
Ishmael voiced his concerns about the NCD problem in the House of Assembly recently.
He was speaking during debate on a resolution to lease land at Coverley, Christ Church, to the Barbados Association for Cancer Advocacy to establish a hospice and palliative care facility for the terminally ill.
This and a related resolution to vest land in the National Housing Corporation for the construction of 33 housing units were passed by the House.
Ishmael welcomed the planned hospice and palliative care facility, noting that it would help ease the demands on the QEH.
However, he said Barbados faced a bigger threat from NCDs, particularly when considering that it was projected that one in two people in Barbados would be 65 years or older by 2050.
“When we dovetail our significant NCD battle, and the strain that it causes and it places upon our . . . limited resources, and then we tie that to the fact that we have a population that is ageing and aged, I believe that this becomes a cocktail of sorts that can be very dangerous to our development and to our progress as a small island developing state,” said the Member of Parliament for St Michael North.
“It is said that eight out of ten persons, or just over, within our country die as a result of a non communicable disease . . . diabetes, hypertension, chronic respiratory illness, cancer and the like.
Ishmael said the NCD burden was evident in relation to health spending and the loss of productivity.
“Sixty-five per cent of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s budget goes towards NCD management. And not only that, but 73 per cent of the Barbados Drug Service in its [dispensing] of medication to our population, 73 per cent of it goes towards NCD management,” he said.
“It is not just that we are having to expend significant funds to fight NCDs, but we are also losing significant revenue; we are losing significant earnings. When we talk about productivity loss relative to NCDs, $145 million per year is the estimated cost of our lost productivity.”
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