Basseterre, St. Kitts, December 23, 2015 (SKNIS): Minister of State responsible for Health and Social Development, Honourable Senator Wendy Phipps has revealed that for the first time St. Kitts and Nevis will have a budgetary allocation for health disaster coordination in 2016.
This was revealed by the Senator during her presentation in support of the 2016 Budget debate on December 17, 2015. She said that the budgetary allocation for health disaster coordination is necessary to deal with certain crisis management needs of the Federation.
“We have never before in the history of St. Kitts and Nevis been able to get that type of allocation in our budget, but it is critical, especially so that we can develop proper systems of crisis management and the strategies to address such crises, and also to look and to respond to natural and other select disasters,” Minister Phipps said, noting that there will be need for training on various levels, “including training in mass casualty management (MCS), emergency care and treatment (ECAT), and also incident command systems (ICS) training.”
The Minister of State identified that money was specifically allotted for Health Disaster Co-ordination, and also the added benefits that would come from this new capacity within the Ministry of Health:
“It would also assist us in developing a multi-hazard disaster health plan for St. Kitts and Nevis, which is separate and apart from the new strategic plan that will be undertaken for the Ministry to cover the period 2016 to 2020…”
The Senator noted that the Ministry’s budgetary allocation for the new Health Disaster Co-ordination programme is EC$15,000.
Commendations for this new project announcement were received from the Director of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Carl Herbert.
“The health sector is fundamental to the ongoing development of any country and so it is important that within that sector there is someone who can give focused attention to disaster management related matters, that is, preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery in the event of a hazard impact, and as the sector has several components, it is important that there is someone within that sector who can coordinate the engagement of the various components of the health sector in having or preparing hazard plans and also testing those plans,” Mr. Herbert said.
In his Budget Address for fiscal year 2016 our Federation’s Prime Minister, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, outlined in brief the Government’s budgetary provisions for healthcare:
“The Ministry of Health would be allocated $46.1 million for its Recurrent Budget for fiscal year 2016, reflecting an increase of $5.5 million or 13.6 percent over the 2015 Budget,” Prime Minister Harris said. “A total of $14.9 million would also be provided for Capital Expenditure. During 2016 the Ministry of Health will continue to emphasize health promotion and education of the pubic regarding healthy life style choices.”
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