Something wrong with our heads – Hickling
Published:Monday | November 18, 2019 | 12:05 AM
A leading mental-health expert has called for a forensic audit into the operations of the Bellevue Hospital in Kingston.
Successive political administra-tions have failed to keep pace with the day-to-day realities at the Bellevue Hospital, the largest psychiatric facility in the English-speaking Caribbean, says noted expert Dr Frederick Hickling.
This has resulted in a disproportionately high slice of the annual health budget going to the 900-bed specialist hospital with 26 wards. It was established 1861 on 123 acres of land at Windward Road.
There needs to be a forensic audit of its operations in order to bring the state funding in line with Jamaica’s current mental health care delivery system, said Hickling, psychiatrist emeritus at the University Hospital of the West Indies, while addressing last Wednesday’s launch of Through the Cracks – Report on Mental Illness Behind Bars at The UWI Regional Headquarters, Mona.
“We now have 300-plus clinics all over the country. According to the figures, we have 110,000 people in those clinics and they are being treated by the 40 psychiatrists who are here and the 150 psychologists who are in this country. In other words, we have built up this cadre of mental health professionals over the last 50 years, and we have done it without any money,” he said.
“But here is the rub: its’ a matter of money. Bellevue Hospital receives $1.3 billion a year to maintain 650 patients and 900 members of staff. Each patient has one and a half workers, and the reality is that, of the majority of patients in Bellevue only 100 of them have acute illnesses. One hundred, maybe 120.”
Dr Hickling said: “It means that Bellevue Hospital is like a boarding house. More than that, it’s like a hotel, because I know that a lot of the people who live in Bellevue work out in Coronation Market and come back to Bellevue at night-time to sleep. I’ve seen that. I know the place inside out,” he said.
This misallocation of well-needed funding is misplaced, according to Hickling.
“So the reality is wrong, where you have $1.3 billion in Bellevue Hospital, and community service has 110,000, plus people it is seeing and has only $200 million. In other words, it has one-sixth of the budget that Bellevue Hospital has.” he said.
“I heard (Dr Christopher) Tufton talking about he just bought 20 buses. I don’t know where they are, because I haven’t seen them, but the reality is that the money has to go into the community to treat the mentally ill people, who are there already. They are being treated there and they are being looked after by their families. Let’s get this thing straight, because something is wrong with our heads,” he said.