Health and Wellness Minister Sabrina Turner told Parliament on Monday that while Cayman has fewer hospital beds than the benchmark cited by the World Health Organization, it nonetheless has enough beds to cater to the islands’ growing population.
The minister was responding to a parliamentary question posed by MP for George Town West, David Wight, who asked her if there were “sufficient public hospital beds in Grand Cayman, given the rapid increase in the number of people living on the island since the pandemic”.
Turner said the question alluded to a “greater issue, that of capacity of our healthcare system in light of our population growth”.
56 beds short
She pointed out that the WHO, while it does not specifically recommend what the number of beds for a population should be, its benchmark is 3.4 beds per 1,000. Using an estimated population in Cayman of 83,000, the islands have 2.7 beds per 1,000 people.
Turner said to meet that the WHO benchmark, Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac, which currently have a total of 226 beds, would require 282.2 beds, so is 56 beds short.
However, she emphasised that when Health City Camana Bay opens fully, it will provide an additional 53 beds, leaving Cayman just three beds short of the benchmark at that point. The hospital, which held an inauguration ceremony earlier this month, is expected to open in the coming weeks.
The health minister noted that more beds would also be coming on line in the public sector next year, with a planned expansion of the George Town Hospital and the addition of 11 more in-patient beds there.
The George Town Hospital has 104 in-patient beds, while the HSA’s second public hospital, Faith Hospital in Cayman Brac has 18 beds. Turner said it was important to include the Brac hospital beds in the equation, as if beds were not available at Faith Hospital, Brac patients would need to be sent to Grand Cayman.
She also said that while Wight’s question had specifically referred to the public hospital system, the HSA often refers patients to other hospitals for treatment, so the number of beds at Health City and Doctors Hospital was relevant.
Other factors
She added, “However, as our chief medical officer [Dr. Nick Gent] reminds us, there are other factors that are much more significant and need to be taken into consideration when assessing our capacity. Among those are the relevant health of the population and the system under which care is given.
“The relative heath of the population determines the demand for care. As such it stands to reason that unhealthier countries need more beds and healthier countries need fewer beds, especially as it relates to infectious disease units, for example.
“The system under which such care is given determines if a more preventative or reactive approach is taken as prevention and early intervention offsets the need for more beds.”
The minister said recent trends in the medical field in Cayman in using minimally invasive procedures, such as laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgery meant people were spending less time in hospital recovering from operations.
“A better test for us when it comes to determining if we have sufficient capacity is not just about the number of beds, but rather by asking are we denying anyone care because we just cannot admit them for treatment in a reasonable time. The answer is no,” she said.
She added that her ministry was not aware of any instance were care had not been provided to an individual, either in the public or private sector, due to a lack of beds.
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