No User Fee health policy must be revisited - Health Minister

Health Minister Horace Dalley has asserted that the No User Fee Policy for the public health sector has to be revisited.

Dalley, in an address to health professionals at the Princess Margaret Hospital last week, dismissed the notion that health care is free.

He described some of  the utterances on the topic as filled with fallacies.

Medical practitioners, including former President of  the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association, Dr Alfred Dawes, have called for the reintroduction of  user fees.

They have argued that the system has become further overburdened due to the policy.

Defending former Health Minister

Dalley also came to the defense of  his predecessor, Dr. Fenton Ferguson.

The Health Minister declared that he does not intend to take the blame for the crisis facing the health sector as was the case with Ferguson.

He argued that the former Health Minister was unfairly treated.

“The treatment that he got in the last couple of months, he really didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. The Ministry of Health is a very large, difficult  ministry. I think he has taken the blame for a lot of things – but I do not intend to take the blame for everyone."

Dalley said all health officials must be held accountable for their area of work.