In a statement to the House of Representatives Tuesday, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton advised that the Government has, under its Code Care intervention, inked eight agreements with private institutions to make the surgeries happen.

He said already 170 patients have been removed from the waiting list for elective surgeries, including 35 children who received surgeries for ear, nose and throat procedures.

"This modality has been used in many other jurisdictions and has been shown to be effective in not only reducing the backlog, but also bolster the quality of care by reducing the patient load in the public sector. We are operating on the principle that there should be one health system and no distinction between public and private, and where the private has spare capacity and the public is under stress, we can transfer some of that demand from the public to private under special arrangement," he said, noting that $950 million has been allocated to the project with the vast majority of funding going towards the renovation and upgrading of nine operating theatres in four hospitals.

Dr Tufton said this will enable the local surgical staff to do more and to enhance the completion of surgeries. The ministry is aiming to remove 2,000 people from the surgery backlog.

Furthermore, a health mission from the United States is scheduled to spend five days in the island from December 1, working with local counterparts at the Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover on surgeries for more than 30 patients.

Meanwhile, specialist nurses could be steps closer to being able to practise their profession jointly between Jamaica and North American jurisdictions as the Government hammers out cooperation agreements with the University of Miami and the Hartford health system.

Dr Tufton advised that the Government has embarked on a shift in the approach to health-care delivery, placing greater focus on developing and structuring strategic partnerships to enhance access to health care.

He noted that two agreements signed recently with the University of Miami and the Hartford health system to mitigate the training and staffing challenges that continue to plague the health system here. Under the arrangement, opportunities are to be created for training and development, and to examine the possibilities for addressing health staff challenges.

"The discussions on the MoUs have started — a draft joint training course outline has been developed and the idea is to train our first batch of specialist nurses jointly by these institutions," he said. This will include clinical rotations, information sharing and simulation, at the end of which nurses will qualify to work in Jamaica and in certain jurisdictions in the US.

"I do envision that there is going to come a point when a specialist nurse, in particular, would be able to work in one jurisdiction for five months, in another for seven," Dr Tufton said, emphasising that the memorandum opens the doors for greater collaboration in technology and the enhanced use of telemedicine to deliver health care, while training specialists.

If we’re all being honest, owning a home or having a roof over our heads is pretty high on our to-do list. How many times have you jokingly told your children – “You better not put me in a nursing home when I’m older” or “I want to live in my house...

WHO advises immediate skin to skin care for survival of small and preterm babies

Cristina Mitchell

15 Nov 2022

Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing just fine, thank you, as we settle in to a busy routine at the latest big STAT event. However, we are exerting additional energy in search of an acceptable cup of stimulation. We will keep you posted on our progress. Meanwhile, we have still found time to assemble the latest list of interesting items for you to peruse. As always, we hope you have a meaningful and productive day. And of course, please keep in touch. We treasure secret dossiers and other delicious tidbits. …

Walmart has agreed to pay $3.1 billion to settle opioid-crisis lawsuits brought by several U.S. states and municipalities, adding to a landmark settlement with rival pharmacy chains, The Wall Street Journal writes. The agreement, which will require significant improvements in how Walmart pharmacies handle opioids, resolves a collection of lawsuits brought by states, cities, and Native American tribes. Earlier this month, CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance agreed to pay roughly $5 billion apiece to settle the lawsuits. The companies did not admit wrongdoing. Each state, local government, and tribe will need to decide whether to participate in the settlement.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

Care Transition Clinic has been in operation for the past 2 years and offers services that have positively impacted patients' health

View the full post Care Transition Clinic reduces hospital re-admissions on NOW Grenada.

His parents sued the Kool Smiles dental clinic in Yuma, Arizona, and its private equity investor, FFL Partners. They argued the procedures were done needlessly, in keeping with a corporate strategy to maximize profits by overtreating kids from lower-income families enrolled in Medicaid. Zion died after being diagnosed with “brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen,” according to the lawsuit.

Kool Smiles “overtreats, underperforms and overbills,” the family alleged in the suit, which was settled last year under confidential terms. FFL Partners and Kool Smiles had no comment but denied liability in court filings.

Private equity is rapidly moving to reshape health care in America, coming off a banner year in 2021, when the deep-pocketed firms plowed $206 billion into more than 1,400 health care acquisitions, according to industry tracker PitchBook.

Seeking quick returns, these investors are buying into eye care clinics, dental management chains, physician practices, hospices, pet care providers, and thousands of other companies that render medical care nearly from cradle to grave. Private equity-backed groups have even set up special “obstetric emergency departments” at some hospitals, which can charge expectant mothers hundreds of dollars extra for routine perinatal care.

As private equity extends its reach into health care, evidence is mounting that the penetration has led to higher prices and diminished quality of care, a KHN investigation has found. KHN found that companies owned or managed by private equity firms have agreed to pay fines of more than $500 million since 2014 to settle at least 34 lawsuits filed under the False Claims Act, a federal law that punishes false billing submissions to the federal government with fines. Most of the time, the private equity owners have avoided liability.

New research by the University of California-Berkeley has identified “hot spots” where private equity firms have quietly moved from having a small foothold to controlling more than two-thirds of the market for physician services such as anesthesiology and gastroenterology in 2021. And KHN found that in San Antonio, more than two dozen gastroenterology offices are controlled by a private equity-backed group that billed a patient $1,100 for her share of a colonoscopy charge — about three times what she paid in another state.

It’s not just prices that are drawing scrutiny.

Whistleblowers and injured patients are turning to the courts to press allegations of misconduct or other improper business dealings. The lawsuits allege that some private equity firms, or companies they invested in, have boosted the bottom line by violating federal false claims and anti-kickback laws or through other profit-boosting strategies that could harm patients.

“Their model is to deliver short-term financial goals and in order to do that you have to cut corners,” said Mary Inman, an attorney who represents whistleblowers.

Federal regulators, meanwhile, are almost blind to the incursion, since private equity typically acquires practices and hospitals below the regulatory radar. KHN found that more than 90% of private equity takeovers or investments fall below the $101 million threshold that triggers an antitrust review by the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Justice Department.

Spurring Growth

Private equity firms pool money from investors, ranging from wealthy people to college endowments and pension funds. They use that money to buy into businesses they hope to flip at a sizable profit, usually within three to seven years, by making them more efficient and lucrative.

Private equity has poured nearly $1 trillion into nearly 8,000 health care transactions during the past decade, according to PitchBook.

Fund managers who back the deals often say they have the expertise to reduce waste and turn around inefficient, or moribund, businesses, and they tout their role in helping to finance new drugs and technologies expected to benefit patients in years to come.

Critics see a far less rosy picture. They argue that private equity’s playbook, while it may work in some industries, is ill suited for health care, when people’s lives are on the line.

In the health care sphere, private equity has tended to find legal ways to bill more for medical services: trimming services that don’t turn a profit, cutting staff, or employing personnel with less training to perform skilled jobs — actions that may put patients at risk, critics say.

KHN, in a series of articles published this year, has examined a range of private equity forays into health care, from its marketing of America’s top-selling emergency contraception pill to buying up whole chains of ophthalmology and gastroenterology practices and investing in the booming hospice care industry and even funeral homes.

These deals happened on top of well-publicized takeovers of hospital emergency room staffing firms that led to outrageous “surprise” medical bills for some patients, as well as the buying up of entire rural hospital systems.

“Their only goal is to make outsize profits,” said Laura Olson, a political science professor at Lehigh University and a critic of the industry.

Hot Spots

When it comes to acquisitions, private equity firms have similar appetites, according to a KHN analysis of 600 deals by the 25 firms that PitchBook says have most frequently invested in health care.

Eighteen of the firms have dental companies listed in their portfolios, and 16 list centers that offer treatment of cataracts, eye surgery, or other vision care, KHN found.

Fourteen have bought stakes in animal hospitals or pet care clinics, a market in which rapid consolidation led to a recent antitrust action by the FTC. The agency reportedly also is investigating whether U.S. Anesthesia Partners, which operates anesthesia practices in nine states, has grown too dominant in some areas.

Private equity has flocked to companies that treat autism, drug addiction, and other behavioral health conditions. The firms have made inroads into ancillary services such as diagnostic and urine-testing and software for managing billing and other aspects of medical practice.

Private equity has done so much buying that it now dominates several specialized medical services, such as anesthesiology and gastroenterology, in a few metropolitan areas, according to new research made available to KHN by the Nicholas C. Petris Center at UC-Berkeley.

Although private equity plays a role in just 14% of gastroenterology practices nationwide, it controls nearly three-quarters of the market in at least five metropolitan areas across five states, including Texas and North Carolina, according to the Petris Center research.

Similarly, anesthesiology practices tied to private equity hold 12% of the market nationwide but have swallowed up more than two-thirds of it in parts of five states, including the Orlando, Florida, area, according to the data.

These expansions can lead to higher prices for patients, said Yashaswini Singh, a researcher at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

In a study of 578 physician practices in dermatology, ophthalmology, and gastroenterology published in JAMA Health Forum in September, Singh and her team tied private equity takeovers to an average increase of $71 per medical claim filed and a 9% increase in lengthy, more costly, patient visits.

Singh said in an interview that private equity may develop protocols that bring patients back to see physicians more often than in the past, which can drive up costs, or order more lucrative medical services, whether needed or not, that boost profits.

“There are more questions than answers,” Singh said. “It really is a black hole.”

Jean Hemphill, a Philadelphia health care attorney, said that in some cases private equity has merely taken advantage of the realities of operating a modern medical practice amid growing administrative costs.

Physicians sometimes sell practices to private equity firms because they promise to take over things like billing, regulatory compliance, and scheduling — allowing doctors to focus on practicing medicine. (The physicians also might reap a big payout.)

“You can’t do it on a scale like Marcus Welby used to do it,” Hemphill said, referring to an early 1970s television drama about a kindly family doctor who made house calls. “That’s what leads to larger groups,” she said. “It is a more efficient way to do it.”

But Laura Alexander, a former vice president of policy at the nonprofit American Antitrust Institute, which collaborated on the Petris Center research, said she is concerned about private equity’s growing dominance in some markets.

“We’re still at the stage of understanding the scope of the problem,” Alexander said. “One thing is clear: Much more transparency and scrutiny of these deals is needed.”

‘Revenue Maximization’

Private equity firms often bring a “hands-on” approach to management, taking steps such as placing their representatives on a company’s board of directors and influencing the hiring and firing of key staffers.

“Private equity exercises immense control over the operations of health care companies it buys an interest in,” said Jeanne Markey, a Philadelphia whistleblower attorney.

Markey represented physician assistant Michelle O’Connor in a 2015 whistleblower lawsuit filed against National Spine and Pain Centers and its private equity owner, Sentinel Capital Partners.

In just a year under private equity guidance, National Spine’s patient load quadrupled as it grew into one of the nation’s largest pain management chains, treating more than 160,000 people in about 40 offices across five East Coast states, according to the suit.

O’Connor, who worked at two National Spine clinics in Virginia, said the mega-growth strategy sprang from a “corporate culture in which money trumps the provision of appropriate patient care,” according to the suit.

She cited a “revenue maximization” policy that mandated medical staffers see at least 25 patients a day, up from 16 to 18 before the takeover.

The pain clinics also overcharged Medicare by billing up to $1,100 for “unnecessary and often worthless” back braces and charging up to $1,800 each for urine drug tests that were “medically unnecessary and often worthless,” according to the suit.

In April 2019, National Spine paid the Justice Department $3.3 million to settle the whistleblower’s civil case without admitting wrongdoing.

Sentinel Capital Partners, which by that time had sold the pain management chain to another private equity firm, paid no part of National Spine’s settlement, court records show. Sentinel Capital Partners had no comment.

In another whistleblower case, a South Florida pharmacy owned by RLH Equity Partners raked in what the lawsuit called an “extraordinarily high” profit on more than $68 million in painkilling and scar creams billed to the military health insurance plan Tricare.

The suit alleges that the pharmacy paid illegal kickbacks to telemarketers who drove the business. One doctor admitted prescribing the creams to scores of patients he had never seen, examined, or even spoken to, according to the suit.

RLH, based in Los Angeles, disputed the Justice Department’s claims. In 2019, RLH and the pharmacy paid a total of $21 million to settle the case. Neither admitted liability. RLH managing director Michel Glouchevitch told KHN that his company cooperated with the investigation and that “the individuals responsible for any problems have been terminated.”

In many fraud cases, however, private equity investors walk away scot-free because the companies they own pay the fines. Eileen O’Grady, a researcher at the nonprofit Private Equity Stakeholder Project, said government should require “added scrutiny” of private equity companies whose holdings run afoul of the law.

“Nothing like that exists,” she said.

Questions About Quality

Whether private equity influences the quality of medical care is tough to discern.

Robert Homchick, a Seattle health care regulatory attorney, said private equity firms “vary tremendously” in how conscientiously they manage health care holdings, which makes generalizing about their performance difficult.

“Private equity has some bad actors, but so does the rest of the [health care] industry,” he said. “I think it’s wrong to paint them all with the same brush.”

But incipient research paints a disturbing picture, which took center stage earlier this year.

On the eve of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech in March, the White House released a statement that accused private equity of "buying up struggling nursing homes” and putting “profits before people.”

The covid-19 pandemic had highlighted the “tragic impact” of staffing cuts and other moneysaving tactics in nursing homes, the statement said.

More than 200,000 nursing home residents and staffers had died from covid in the previous two years, according to the White House, and research had linked private equity to inflated nursing costs and elevated patient death rates.

Some injured patients are turning to the courts in hopes of holding the firms accountable for what the patients view as lapses in care or policies that favor profits over patients.

Dozens of lawsuits link patient harm to the sale of Florida medical device maker Exactech to TPG Capital, a Texas private equity firm. TPG acquired the device company in February 2018 for about $737 million.

In August 2021, Exactech recalled its Optetrak knee replacement system, warning that a defect in packaging might cause the implant to loosen or fracture and cause “pain, bone loss or recurrent swelling.” In the lawsuits, more than three dozen patients accuse Exactech of covering up the defects for years, including, some suits say, when “full disclosure of the magnitude of the problem … might have negatively impacted” Exactech’s sale to TPG.

Linda White is suing Exactech and TPG, which she asserts is “directly involved” in the device company’s affairs.

White had Optetrak implants inserted into both her knees at a Galesburg, Illinois, hospital in June 2012. The right one failed and was replaced with a second Optetrak implant in July 2015, according to her lawsuit. That one also failed, and she had it removed and replaced with a different company’s device in January 2019.

The Exactech implant in White’s left knee had to be removed in May 2019, according to the suit, which is pending in Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois.

In a statement to KHN, Exactech said it conducted an “extensive investigation” when it received reports of “unexpected wear of our implants.”

Exactech said the problem dated to 2005 but was discovered only in July of last year. “Exactech disputes the allegations in these lawsuits and intends to vigorously defend itself,” the statement said. TPG declined to comment but has denied the allegations in court filings.

‘Invasive Procedures’

In the past, private equity business tactics have been linked to scandalously bad care at some dental clinics that treated children from low-income families.

In early 2008, a Washington, D.C., television station aired a shocking report about a local branch of the dental chain Small Smiles that included video of screaming children strapped to straightjacket-like “papoose boards” before being anesthetized to undergo needless operations like baby root canals.

Five years later, a U.S. Senate report cited the TV exposé in voicing alarm at the "corporate practice of dentistry in the Medicaid program.” The Senate report stressed that most dentists turned away kids enrolled in Medicaid because of low payments and posed the question: How could private equity make money providing that care when others could not?

“The answer is ‘volume,’” according to the report.

Small Smiles settled several whistleblower cases in 2010 by paying the government $24 million. At the time, it was providing “business management and administrative services” to 69 clinics nationwide, according to the Justice Department. It later declared bankruptcy.

But complaints that volume-driven dentistry mills have harmed disadvantaged children didn’t stop.

According to the 2018 lawsuit filed by his parents, Zion Gastelum was hooked up to an oxygen tank after questionable root canals and crowns “that was empty or not operating properly” and put under the watch of poorly trained staffers who didn’t recognize the blunder until it was too late.

Zion never regained consciousness and died four days later at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the suit states. The cause of death was “undetermined,” according to the Maricopa County medical examiner’s office. An Arizona state dental board investigation later concluded that the toddler’s care fell below standards, according to the suit.

Less than a month after Zion’s death in December 2017, the dental management company Benevis LLC and its affiliated Kool Smiles clinics agreed to pay the Justice Department $24 million to settle False Claims Act lawsuits. The government alleged that the chain performed “medically unnecessary” dental services, including baby root canals, from January 2009 through December 2011.

In their lawsuit, Zion’s parents blamed his death on corporate billing policies that enforced “production quotas for invasive procedures such as root canals and crowns” and threatened to fire or discipline dental staff “for generating less than a set dollar amount per patient.”

Kool Smiles billed Medicaid $2,604 for Zion’s care, according to the suit. FFL Partners did not respond to requests for comment. In court filings, it denied liability, arguing it did not provide “any medical services that harmed the patient.”

Covering Tracks

Under a 1976 federal law called the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, deal-makers must report proposed mergers to the FTC and the Justice Department antitrust division for review. The intent is to block deals that stifle competition, which can lead to higher prices and lower-quality services.

But there’s a huge blind spot, which stymies government oversight of more than 90% of private equity investments in health care companies: The current threshold for reporting deals is $101 million.

KHN’s analysis of PitchBook data found that just 423 out of 7,839 private equity health care deals from 2012 through 2021 were known to have exceeded the current threshold.

In some deals, private equity takes a controlling interest in medical practices, and doctors work for the company. In other cases, notably in states whose laws prohibit corporate ownership of physician practices, the private equity firm handles a range of management duties.

Thomas Wollmann, a University of Chicago researcher, said antitrust authorities may not learn of consequential transactions “until long after they have been completed” and “it's very hard to break them up after the fact.”

In August, the FTC took aim at what it called “a growing trend toward consolidation” by veterinary medicine chains.

The FTC ordered JAB Consumer Partners, a private equity firm based in Luxembourg, to divest from some clinics in the San Francisco Bay and Austin, Texas, areas as part of a proposed $1.1 billion takeover of a rival.

The FTC said the deal would eliminate “head-to-head” competition, “increasing the likelihood that customers are forced to pay higher prices or experience a degradation in quality of the relevant services.”

Under the order, JAB must obtain FTC approval before buying veterinary clinics within 25 miles of the sites it owns in Texas and California.

The FTC would not say how much market consolidation is too much or whether it plans to step up scrutiny of health care mergers and acquisitions.

“Every case is fact-specific,” Betsy Lordan, an FTC spokesperson, told KHN.

Lordan, who has since left the agency, said regulators are considering updates to regulations governing mergers and are reviewing about 1,900 responses to the January 2022 request for public comment. At least 300 of the comments were from doctors or other health care workers.

Few industry observers expect the concerns to abate; they might even increase.

Investors are flush with “dry powder,” industry parlance for money waiting to stoke a deal.

The Healthcare Private Equity Association, which boasts about 100 investment companies as members, says the firms have $3 trillion in assets and are pursuing a vision for "building the future of healthcare.”

That kind of talk alarms Cornell University professor Rosemary Batt, a longtime critic of private equity. She predicts that investors chasing outsize profits will achieve their goals by “sucking the wealth” out of more and more health care providers.

“They are constantly looking for new financial tricks and strategies,” Batt said.

KHN’s Megan Kalata contributed to this article.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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IF we're all being honest, owning a home or having a roof over our heads is pretty high on our to-do list. How many times have you joking told your children — "You better not put me in a nursing home when I'm older" or "I want to live in my house until I die"? These are great thoughts — who wouldn't love being in the comfort of their own home, or as experts call it "age in place"?

Here's some food for thought: When was the last time you sat down and really thought about the space you're living in and how conducive it will be for you as you get older? My guess would be maybe once or twice, if at all. Don't worry, if you haven't given it much thought you aren't alone. One of the main objectives of this article is to get those wheels turning in your head.

We can never be too certain if any disease or illness will affect us as we get older. A good place to start is by taking a look at your family history. Are there any trends? Meaning, history of stroke, arthritis, dementia, etc. Or have you been diagnosed or put on watch for any chronic illnesses? You might be wondering — what does that have to do with my home environment? A lot! For example, people with rheumatoid arthritis may find it difficult to grip, making door knobs that much harder to open. A better alternative would be to use door handles with levers.

In this article I'll share with you an abbreviated checklist of things you may want to take into consideration as you analyse your living space, especially if your plan is to live in your home as you get older.

The overall floor plan

First things first. Having all the major or most used spaces on the same floor is definitely a plus in the event that climbing the stairs becomes difficult. You want to ensure that at least a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen are all on the main level. If you have a single-level home, then you won't have to worry about this.

Entryway

Does your entryway have good natural and or artificial lighting? A well-lit entry will lessen the likelihood of stumbles and/or falls because of poor judgement. Try to limit the amount of steps. Ramps make entering much more accessible whether you require a wheelchair or not.

Hallways

Hallways, if present, should be wide enough to facilitate a wheelchair. Again, try to get in as much natural light as possible. If the area still seems poorly lit, there are many artificial lighting options available. Keep in mind also that switches should be at a comfortable height making them more accessible to persons in a wheelchair. Using motion-censor lights are also another great option.

Counters

It is recommended that countertops be 36 inches or three feet from the floor, which will make it more accessible for everyone. Using contrasting colours for backsplash and or countertops will not only add some character to your space, but will also provide benefits for the visually impaired.

Flooring

Think non-slip, non-reflecting. Consider tiles that have a matte finish or other slip-resistant surfaces. Limit the number of rugs and mats throughout your space — these may become hazardous. Run cables and wires along the wall, keeping the floor free from obstructions.

Bathrooms

Showers are more convenient than bathtubs. Non-slip tiles are non-negotiable; install grab bars/rails. Removable shower heads with hose and high toilets are some things to keep in mind for this space.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and is very general in nature. Always consult with an expert who is equipped with the skill sets to make the right recommendations for you, your family and your space. Ageing in place is not impossible; it just takes a little help.

Dr Raejean Porter, DPT is a geriatric physiotherapist and geriatric home modification specialist. She can be contacted at: raejean323@hotmail.com

This has been exacerbated by the relative ease of dissemination of unfounded and misleading theories through social media and other web-based communication outlets. It has perpetuated beliefs that led to interference with public health interventions resulting in vaccine avoidance or hesitancy, non-compliance with social distancing recommendations, mask mandate refusal, and utilisation of medications with insignificant scientific data and unproven efficacy, ultimately contributing to increased morbidity and mortality.

Several studies addressing misinformation in health care consistently show that false and misleading claims negatively influence people's attitudes towards vaccines.

A recent paper specifically looking at COVID vaccine presented findings from a global survey of 18,400 individuals from 40 countries and showed a strong association between perceived believability of COVID-19 misinformation and vaccination hesitancy. The study showed that only half of the online users exposed to rumours might have seen corresponding fact-checked information refuting the rumours. Moreover, depending on the country, between six per cent and 37 per cent of individuals considered these rumours believable.

A key finding of this research is that poorer regions were more susceptible to encountering and believing COVID-19 misinformation; countries with lower gross domestic product (GDP) per capita showed a substantially higher prevalence of misinformation.

Undoubtedly, misinformation is partly responsible for the relatively low vaccination rates in many countries which has slowed down the efforts to halt the pandemic. As at the end of October, about 13 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered around the world. While nearly 70 per cent of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, when you look at low-income countries which include many countries in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa, only 23 per cent of people have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. More booster doses have been administered in high income countries than total doses in low-income countries.

In the English-speaking Caribbean, Latam and Africa, the story is mixed. In Trinidad and Tobago, for example, only about 50 per cent got at least one dose of the vaccine or are fully vaccinated with only about 12 booster doses for 100 residents. In Belize and Guyana, about 60 per cent of the population received at least one vaccine dose or are fully vaccinated while only about 10 doses of booster vaccines are available per 100 citizens. In Jamaica and Nigeria, less than 30 per cent of the population got at least one dose and less than 25 per cent are fully vaccinated. In both countries, there are only about two booster doses for each 100 residents. About eight countries in the Caribbean have vaccination rates less than 50 per cent. Haiti and Burundi both have less than five per cent of the population fully vaccinated and virtually no booster doses for the population.

Cuba is a remarkable Caribbean vaccination success story with nearly 400 vaccine doses per 100 people with an impressive 95 per cent of citizens receiving at least one dose and almost 90 per cent of the population fully vaccinated. About 75 doses of booster doses are available in Cuba per 100 citizens. Peru and Ecuador are also successful examples in the Latin American region with about 90 per cent of the population receiving at least one dose and about 85 per cent fully vaccinated. In Ecuador, about 90 per cent received at least one dose and about 80 per cent fully vaccinated. In Africa, Mauritius and Rwanda are breakout stories with Mauritius having about 90 per cent of the population receiving at least one dose of the vaccine and another 90 per cent being fully vaccinated while in Rwanda, 72 per cent receiving at least one dose and 70 per cent being fully vaccinated.

Despite enormous public spending and engagement, the US has just about 80 per cent receiving one dose of coronavirus vaccine and 67.5 per cent being fully vaccinated. The poor vaccination rates in many poorer countries and the relatively unimpressive vaccination rates in the USA can at least be partly attributed to misinformation.

COVID and cardiovascular risk

There is very little reliable data specific to Jamaica or the Caribbean as a region. However, as has been widely reported in the literature, novel coronavirus pandemic has significantly impacted cardiovascular health care globally. Patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease are at higher risk of morbidity and mortality. The COVID-19 pandemic has directly caused significant excess mortality on a global scale. There is emerging evidence that cardiovascular (CV) mortality has increased during the pandemic, independent of COVID infection. This has been attributed to several factors, including patients avoiding health-care environments to avoid exposure to SARS-CoV2, redeployment of specialist health-care staff to support COVID-19 services, and reduced availability of routine investigations and procedures

Patients with pre-existing comorbidities are thought to be at an increased risk of infection with SARS-CoV2 virus and tend to have worse clinical outcomes. Specifically, patients with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension are thought to have a high complication rate with mortality rate of 10.5 per cent reported in cardiac patients and mortality rates of 7.3 per cent and 6.0 per cent for diabetes and hypertension patients, respectively. COVID-19 is believed to have contributed to 15 million new cases of heart disease worldwide.

A study published in Nature Medicine (Feb 2022) by a group from Washington University looked at data on more than 150,000 patients with COVID-19 and showed that people who have had COVID-19 are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular complications within the first month to a year after infection. Such complications include arrhythmias, myocarditis, myocardial infarction or ACS, heart failure, stroke, or death. Overall, they found that those infected with the virus were 55 per cent more likely than those without COVID-19 to suffer a major adverse cardiovascular event, which includes heart attack, stroke, and death. An earlier study by a Swedish group found strong evidence that heart attacks and strokes risk rise sharply in the weeks following a COVID-19 diagnosis. The findings were published on August 14, 2021, in The Lancet, and included about 87,000 people with a median age of 48. In that study, the week after a COVID-19 diagnosis, the risk of a first myocardial infarction increased by three to eight times. The risk of a first ischemic stroke multiplied by three to six times. In the following weeks, both risks decreased steadily, but stayed elevated for at least a month

Impact of COVID on access to cardiovascular care

Regarding access and availability of cardiovascular services, significant disruptions to access were noted globally and in the Caribbean region. At the Heart Institute of the Caribbean (HIC) and Heart Hospital, we were part of the INCAPS COVID Investigators Group that looked at the International Impact of COVID-19 on the Diagnosis of Heart Disease. Our research study which was published in in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) in January 2021 sought to assess COVID-19's impact on global cardiovascular diagnostic procedural volumes and safety practice. The study looked at data from nearly 1000 facilities in 108 countries and found that cardiovascular diagnostic services declined by 40-78 per cent depending on the procedure. In multi-variable regression analysis, significantly greater reduction in services occurred for centres in countries with lower gross domestic product. Location in a low-income and lower–middle-income country was associated with an additional 22% reduction in cardiac procedures and services. The decline in elective procedures and services was thought to be mainly because individuals chose to defer elective cases out of fear of exposure, economic impact from the pandemic and government mandated lock downs that made it difficult for individuals to attend to elective needs.

The panel noted that as the world learns to live with COVID and brace for other potential future pandemics, it is imperative that we learn these lessons from COVID and put measures in place to mitigate the outcomes and be better prepared function within the context of the new normal.

Dr Ernest Madu, MD, FACC and Dr Paul Edwards, MD, FACC are consultant cardiologists for Heart Institute of the Caribbean (HIC) and HIC Heart Hospital. HIC is the regional centre of excellence for cardiovascular care in the English-speaking Caribbean and has pioneered a transformation in the way cardiovascular care is delivered in the region. HIC Heart Hospital is registered by the Ministry of Health and Wellness and is the only heart hospital in Jamaica. Correspondence to info@caribbeanheart.com or call 876-906-2107

2 new positive cases; 18 active cases
0 new deaths; 0 new recoveries
38,975 fully vaccinated

View the full post Covid-19 update: Grenada Dashboard 9 November 2022 on NOW Grenada.