C ommo nwe a l t h memb e r c o u n t r i e s The country has more than 20 hospitals and more than 340 health care centres, most of which are public. The Ministry of Health is responsible for the implementation of effective service delivery and for occupational health and safety. Though public health care is subsidised by the government, citizens pay rates proportional to their income. About nine per cent of people have private health insurance (2006). There is some local pharmaceutical manufacturing, although the medical and pharmaceutical market as a whole is dominated by imports, about a third of which are supplied by the USA. The most recent act relating to mental health in Jamaica is the Mental Health Act 1997. There are 5.1 mental health outpatient facilities and 2.9 psychiatric beds in general hospitals per 100,000 people (2011). Health MDGs: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) mature in 2015, but monitoring of progress is ongoing due to the time it takes to collect and analyse data from each country. For Jamaica to achieve its targets for the reduction of child mortality, which forms MDG 4, it should have reduced under-five deaths per 1,000 live births to ten and increased measles immunisation to 100 per cent when the 2015 data is analysed. The country has shown continued improvement in both of these factors since 1990. In 2012 under-five mortality was approximately 17 deaths per 1,000 live births and measles immunisation is 94 per cent, but further progress must be made if Jamaica is to meet the goal when the 2015 data is analysed. The global MDG 5 target for maternal health is to reduce the number of women who die in pregnancy and childbirth by threequarters between 1990 and 2015. For Jamaica, therefore, maternal mortality should have fallen to 15 cases per 100,000 live births. In the period 2013 Jamaica had an adjusted maternal mortality ratio of 80 deaths per 100,000 live births (this figure was estimated at 110 deaths per 100,000 by UN agencies/World Bank in 2010). Jamaica’s maternal mortality rate is almost six times the target figure set by MDG 5, so this part of the goal is very unlikely to be achieved. Part of the goal also stipulates that 100 per cent of births must be attended by a skilled health professional. In 2012 this figure stood at 96 per cent, suggesting that achievement of this part of the goal is more realistic. MDG 6 aims for a reduction in the prevalence of HIV, malaria and other diseases. Jamaica’s HIV prevalence has fallen since 2000 but is still above 1990 levels. Since 1990 there has been a significant Under-five mortality 30 25 20 15 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Under-five mortality per 1,000 live births 2015 MDG 4 target 75 74 73 72 71 188 Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015 10 Life expectancy and HIV/AIDS 2.5 2.0 1.5 1980 1990 2000 2013 Prevalence of HIV/AIDS among those aged 15–49 Life expectancy Prevalence of HIV, total (% of population aged 15-49) Life expectancy in years 70 1.0 Mortality by cause of death (% of all deaths), 2012 Communicable diseases, Injuries maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions Non-communicable diseases Tuberculosis: Incidence and mortality 1990 2000 2010 Mortality excluding cases comorbid with HIV (per100,000 people) Incidence of tuberculosis (per 100,000 people) – including cases comorbid with HIV 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015
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