HEALTH Minister Fenton Ferguson was Wednesday happy with the $7.4 billion added to the national budget for the sector.

However, Opposition Spokesman on Finance Audley Shaw wanted to know what would be done about the $7 billion owed to suppliers for medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.

“Do you have any intention of reducing it from the $7 billion?” Shaw asked at Wednesday’s sitting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House, where Dr Ferguson and three other ministers came to defend their portion of Government’s $641-billion budget.

Dr Ferguson said of the $4 billion set aside to pay for medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, the largest sum of old debts is drugs, for which $2.1 billion will go to the National Health Fund (NHF).

Shaw did not get a figure for the total sum that would be paid out in arrears, but was told instead that, the finance ministry would, “work arrangement as to how those arrears would be dealt with”.

“We are interested in the funding that would be made available in dealing with what exists now when you’re not able to get some of the medication and medical sundry in our clinics and hospitals,” Ferguson said.

The health minister said the increase in the budget from $40.3 billion to $47.8 billion would help to address a number of issues that had plagued the sector during the past year.

He said the country should expect significant improvements in the supply of drugs, and other critical implements such as reagents, blood bags, and medical gases.

“We are happy this year that we are seeing a budget that is moving in the right direction. While we would have asked for approximately $10 billion over last year, we believe that it (the increase) will in a real sense respond to a number of the issues and gaps that the sector has,” Dr Ferguson told the commitee.

— Alphea Saunders