Ensuring Quality Health Care and a Healthy Population

Today the Auditor General, Sue Winspear, released the Office's performance audit report on Ensuring Quality Health Care and a Healthy Population, and also a public interest report of the Cayman Islands Health System and the results of a survey of physicians and dentists within the Cayman Islands.

The Government lacks the resources and information required to manage the health care system effectively, says Sue Winspear, Auditor General of the Cayman Islands, in her performance audit report issued today. The report, “Ensuring Quality Health Care and a Healthy Population”, assesses how effectively the Government oversees and regulates the health care system.

“Without the resources and information needed to effectively manage the health care system, the Government cannot provide assurance to legislators and the public that it delivers high quality health care and achieves value for money,” said Ms. Winspear.

The audit also examined how the Government promotes and monitors compliance with health-related laws and regulations and whether it provides good information to the public about how well health care facilities are meeting their obligations.  Finally, the auditors assessed whether the health care system achieves outcomes that are consistent with the Government’s performance expectations and with relevant international standards.

While the audit found that health outcomes in the Cayman Islands appear to compare well with other jurisdictions, the information presented may conceal important differences between the health of Caymanian and expatriate populations.

“We found that the Government still has much to do to implement its own 2012 strategic plan for improving health care.  Having spent so much effort to identify what it needed to do, the Government should have made a better effort to plan for and implement the improvements,” said the Auditor General.  

Issued with the audit report was a public interest report, “Cayman Islands Health System.” Ms. Winspear explained that her Office wrote that report because there was very little public information accessible to legislators that described how the health system works and how Government manages the approximately $138 million of public funds used to provide accessible quality health care.

“When legislators are making policy decisions that affect approximately 18% of total government expenditure, I believe those decisions should be made with the full understanding of how they could impact the health of residents of the Cayman Islands,” said Ms. Winspear.

More information about these reports can be obtained by contacting the Office of the Auditor General at (345) 244-3201.  The reports are available at www.auditorgeneral.gov.ky under Reports - Performance Audits.