The Editor, Sir:

As a professional within the health care field, I feel a need to speak up about the recent JLP promise to dismantle the Regional Health Authority if they are elected to power in August. Simply put, this is a bad idea.

For the health services of all 14 parishes to rest solely on the shoulders of one person, or even a team of three, would not be efficient in the least. This kind of structure worked in the past, mainly because many of the health programmes which we have today did not exist back then, and it was therefore easier to manage. But to get rid of the RHA's at a time like this, particularly with the increase of hospital patients because of the new policy of free hospital fees for children under 18, is an idea both misguided and out of date.

Bette

I do agree that the RHA needs to change to some extent. A bette to the JLP's plan would be to ensure that persons appointed to regional and managerial positions within the authority have some kind of health care experience. The JLP is suggesting that the members of the health board know very little about the running of a hospital compared to the administrator, matron and the senior medical officer. That is not a good enough reasoning for dismantling the RHA. Instead, ensuring that the people placed on these boards do have a strong background in healt care would solve this problem easily.

I feel the need to point out to the JLP that health care in Jamaica is ranked number 53 on a list of 190 by the World Health Organisation. We have a far better system in place than many countries. What health care in Jamaica needs is not a complete re-structuring of the system, but instead an improvement on the current structure. The RHA needs to be expanded with more human resources, as well as more funding to ensure that the goals set for the board can be met within the allotted time.

Furthermore, the JLP's proposal of free health care for all is simply not something our country can afford. What Jamaica needs is a government that will focus on the policies and systems in place and plan the necessary changes carefully instead of rattling off wild promises to impress voters.

I am, etc.,

Dr. RICHARD GIBSON

Salisbury Mews

Kingston 8