00:00 The North Central Regional Health Authority is reporting an exponential increase in the
00:07 number of people seeking emergency medical care and the authority says for reasons not
00:12 disclosed they are expecting even more in 2024.
00:16 There is a 33% increase in the patient load in the emergency department between 2021 and
00:24 2023 that is to say we saw 153,000 persons in 2021 if you divide that by the number of
00:33 days in the year that will give you a sense of the magnitude of the engagement and we
00:38 moved to 204,000 persons 155 in 2023 and we expect more this year.
00:47 Of concern accident and emergency was not the only department recording significant
00:52 increases in patient loads.
00:55 General practice clinics we began in 2021 at 93,000 that has increased almost 25% to
01:04 116,000 persons encounter engaging the department.
01:10 The revelations come mere days after the Minister of Health took fast food outlets and their
01:14 customers to task as he lamented the incidence of hypertension and diabetes in this country.
01:22 Interestingly though the NCRHA is reporting a decrease in the need for chronic care.
01:28 For chronic diseases clinics we have also seen a decrease in the number of patients
01:34 who require chronic disease clinic care that is to say they require less and less visits
01:43 for in those our chronic disease clinics hypertension and so on.
01:48 We attribute some of that to our walk the talk initiatives to a lot of those initiatives
01:52 where we actually go out and engage people and certainly now our wellness club.
01:59 But President of the Registered Nurses Association Edie Stewart says as far as he can see non
02:05 communicable diseases remain a challenging issue in this country.
02:09 The amount of initiatives they have put in place the number of equipments they have put
02:14 in place they are unable to demonstrate how this has translated into a reduction in disease
02:22 profile particularly NCDs.
02:26 I think everyone would have been informed of WHO recent statistics and PAHO recent statistics
02:32 and even the Minister of Health statements recently where we are going in the opposite
02:38 direction of where we should be focusing.
02:41 The board thanked Mr. Stewart for his concerns.
02:44 I think the comments are valuable and there is no response to that statement.
02:49 We acknowledge and appreciate the statement.
02:52 Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
02:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]
Comments