Outstanding fees blamed for huge debt in schools and hospitals

Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter

The inability of some schools and hospitals to collect fees from students and patients is being blamed for those institutions' failure to pay utility bills.

Cost-sharing programmes, which were introduced in the schools in the early '90s and in the hospitals in the mid-'90s, were designed to help public institutions to offset debts accumulated in the delivery of service.

However, it is understood that secondary schools are owed millions under the cost-sharing programme, which has forced many into fund-raising activities to offset debts.

Jamaica Teachers' Association general secretary, Dr. Adolph Cameron, said last week that secondary schools which charge school fees are responsible for paying their utility bills. But if fees remain outstanding, they impact on the school's ability to pay its bills.

"Many schools are unable to collect fees from the students. When this happens, the schools are then indebted to the National Water Commission, Jamaica Public Service Company, and Cable and Wireless Jamaica," he said.

Dr. Cameron explained that primary schools which previously submitted bills to the Ministry of Education, now receive a grant to pay utility bills. Where the sum is inadequate - "and it is always inadequate" - principals make claims on the Ministry if the bill is more that the sum allotted.

In the case of the health sector, there is heavy indebtedness to all public hospitals. More than $500 million is owed to hospitals in the South East Regional Health Authority which includes all the referral hospitals in Kingston and St. Andrew, and hospitals in St. Catherine and St. Thomas.

The Kingston Public Hospital has been using moral suasion to collect $50 million owed between 1999-2001, according to last year's report.

The Sunday Gleaner was unable to make contact with any of several hospitals' CEOs, but Nurses Association of Jamaica general secretary, Patricia Ivers, said hospitals pay bills from the minimal fees they charge.

"When patients do not pay bills, it makes life very difficult for the institutions," she said.

Public hospitals charge minimal fees for non-emergency and major surgeries.

Major surgery costs $7,500 on average, while non-emergency surgeries costs range from $1,500 - $10,000, with admission on ward costing $200 per night.

However, the Health Ministry said no patient should be turned away because of inability to pay.

But the debts accumulate and impact on the hospitals' ability to deliver proper health care, Patricia Ivers said.

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