Falklands : Public Meeting Report (20/04/09)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 22.04.2009 (Article Archived on 13.05.2009)
A public meeting was held in the court and Council Chamber of the Town Hall on Monday, 20 April 2009 at 1700hrs. Present were Cllrs Summers (Chair), Birmingham, Hansen, Clausen and Rendell. Also present were Keith Padgett, Financial Secretary, Mr Tim Thorogood, Chief Executive, Dr Roger Diggle, Chief Medical Officer and Sony Jose, FIG’s Financial Advisor.
PUBLIC MEETING REPORT (20/04/09)
By J. Brock (FINN)
A public meeting was held in the court and Council Chamber of the Town Hall on Monday, 20 April 2009 at 1700hrs. Present were Cllrs Summers (Chair), Birmingham, Hansen, Clausen and Rendell. Also present were Keith Padgett, Financial Secretary, Mr Tim Thorogood, Chief Executive, Dr Roger Diggle, Chief Medical Officer and Sony Jose, FIG’s Financial Advisor.
Cllr Summers gave a brief introduction and Keith Padgett explained about what was in the green paper on health care funding.. Approximately 40 people were in the Court and Council Chamber to listen and to ask questions about the paper, which had previously been distributed to each mail box.
Much of the discussion focused on the best way to fund a health care system. There are four options – direct payments, private health insurance, social health insurance and a health service funded by taxes.
Dr Diggle explained that the purpose of the green paper was to give people enough information so they could decide what kind of health service they wanted and how it was going to be funded.
Tim Blake pointed out that direct payments discouraged the less well off from seeking medical attention. He liked the tax option.
Tim Miller said that health care should bean option for employees but that the employer should not have to fork out for employee health care.
Roger Spink mentioned that MSL would be the introduction of yet another tax and that Government should be looking at how it spends its money. £28,000.00 was being spent to recruit another lawyer and this could be put into the Health and Medical Services funding. He also mentioned £140,000.00 for Landholdings Subsidy and £57,000.00 for the Abattoir. This money could be put towards health and medical services.
Cllr Summers said that no matter what, there was inflation in Medical service in increased supply and equipment costs. Even if we kept the service at the same level, costs would go up.
Dr Diggle backed him up by saying that even cutting back by 3% would have hidden and grave consequences. He is determined to be open about those consequences but there was no doubt that costs will keep going up.
He went on to say that we have health and medical services that are the envy of those in the UK. It is a first world service like that one would find in Europe, North America and Austral-Asia, where £2,000 to £4,000.00 per annum is spent on health care. In much of Africa only £0.75p per year is spent on health care.
Karen Lee wanted to know about time wasters and how much money was wasted with them. Dr Paver disagreed and said that as far as she knew no one visiting her clinic wasted time and that all had a genuine medical problem.
Stella Prindle Middleton mentioned that most of the people she spoke with would contribute to their medical care but wanted the money ear-marked for health and medical services and not the consolidated fund.
Sarah Davies wanted to know if the money was being wisely spent and Keith Padgett as well as Tim Thorogood said that according to the audit it was, but there were some areas that could do better.
Cllr Summers said that longer-term planning was an area that needed tightening up. Keith Padgett is comfortable that the money is being well spent.
Mike Forrest wanted to know what Councillors meant by “the level we want and what we can afford.” Cllr Summers said this is why we got a copy of the paper and why we are discussing it. Cllrs Summers and Clausen assured everyone that no decision about funding had been made but that ideas and comments were being taken into account.
Brian Summers mentioned that Social Welfare could be cut in preference to the Medical end of the health and medical services levy. Tim Miller said he shared that view.
Mike Forrest also brought up some figures and said that doing the figures over 3 years the percentage per annum of the budget was something between 5 or 6 %. Keith Padget said 10% was the current level within the UK. Mike Forrest asked if people were going to pay more for less service and Mike Summers said that to maintain the same level of service will cost more.
It was pointed out that in comparison with other British Overseas Territories, the Falklands were fortunate. Gibraltar and St Helena had single digit overseas referrals while the Falklands have sent an average of 70 per year.
Dr Diggle reminded people that belt tightening would weaken the health service. After working out how to spend money wisely there can be no further action without weakening the service.
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