In 2010 Jamaica’s government expenditure on health care was 2.7 per cent of GDP, equivalent to US$270 per capita. In the most recent survey conducted between 1997 and 2009, there were 85 doctors, and 165 nurses and midwives per 100,000 people. Additionally, in the period 2007-12, 98 per cent of births were attended by qualified health staff and in 2012, 93 per cent of one-year-olds were immunised with one dose of measles. In 2011, 93 per cent of the Jamaican population had access to improved water sources and 80 per cent had access to adequate sanitation facilities.
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).
