Dear Editor,
As the controversial audit of Jamaica's health sector makes the rounds in the public domain, one wonders why was it not disclosed long ago? What was all this fuss about?
The Access to Information Act sets the framework for the flow of information between the Government and the people. The Act is very clear about those sorts of documents that are protected from disclosure. You can read about it on the Ministry of Health's website (http://moh.gov.jm/access-to-information/).
This is fairly straightforward. The hospital audit does not fall into any of those categories and is not exempt from disclosure. The law makes it clear that it should be disclosed. The Ministry of Health demurred, or at least waited as long as they could under the law. Why?
I heard some unfortunate official statements about wanting to shield people from vilification, or protect their feelings, or some other eye-roller of an excuse. The supposed emotional state of health workers has never trumped the principle of transparency or the law. Neither have I reason to believe that our health care workers are so emotionally fragile -- quite the opposite.
The truth, as anyone who has interacted with our public health system knows, is that our health workers are enduringly heroic. They have been making the best of a bad situation for generations now, largely in dignified silence. But it is also true that the situation has worsened over the last few political administrations.
One doctor, Alfred Dawes, broke the silence and we have seen what became of him. An audit was ordered to tell us what we already knew; we see what has become of that.
Rather than spending the last few months twisting, turning, making silly speeches, carding people on social media, trumpeting context-free budget numbers, and dodging the obvious, Jamaica could have been having an honest national conversation. We could have laid bare the many faults in our health care system in the context of our economic situation. We could have engaged everyone -- the Diaspora, in the private sector. We could have been solving the problem, rather than pretending there were none, or scoring political points.
We still can. It begins with transparency. Not just as a buzzword that gets thrown around, but as a lived philosophy of governance. I daresay that it would be a more useful approach for everyone.
Gerald Lindo
gerry.lindo@gmail.com
Why not disclose health audit long ago?
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As the controversial audit of Jamaica's health sector makes the rounds in the public domain, one wonders why was it not disclosed long ago? What was all this fuss about?
The Access to Information Act sets the framework for the flow of information between the Government and the people. The Act is very clear about those sorts of documents that are protected from disclosure. You can read about it on the Ministry of Health's website (http://moh.gov.jm/access-to-information/).
This is fairly straightforward. The hospital audit does not fall into any of those categories and is not exempt from disclosure. The law makes it clear that it should be disclosed. The Ministry of Health demurred, or at least waited as long as they could under the law. Why?
I heard some unfortunate official statements about wanting to shield people from vilification, or protect their feelings, or some other eye-roller of an excuse. The supposed emotional state of health workers has never trumped the principle of transparency or the law. Neither have I reason to believe that our health care workers are so emotionally fragile -- quite the opposite.
The truth, as anyone who has interacted with our public health system knows, is that our health workers are enduringly heroic. They have been making the best of a bad situation for generations now, largely in dignified silence. But it is also true that the situation has worsened over the last few political administrations.
One doctor, Alfred Dawes, broke the silence and we have seen what became of him. An audit was ordered to tell us what we already knew; we see what has become of that.
Rather than spending the last few months twisting, turning, making silly speeches, carding people on social media, trumpeting context-free budget numbers, and dodging the obvious, Jamaica could have been having an honest national conversation. We could have laid bare the many faults in our health care system in the context of our economic situation. We could have engaged everyone -- the Diaspora, in the private sector. We could have been solving the problem, rather than pretending there were none, or scoring political points.
We still can. It begins with transparency. Not just as a buzzword that gets thrown around, but as a lived philosophy of governance. I daresay that it would be a more useful approach for everyone.
Gerald Lindo
gerry.lindo@gmail.com
Why not disclose health audit long ago?
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