Turks and Caicos Islands

“Strengthening health systems to cope with the increased health threats posed by climate change,
including emergencies related to extreme weather events and storm surge;
Advocacy and awareness about diseases within the Health sector and the general public;
Partnership with other agencies and other sectors at local, national, regional and international
levels to ensure that health protection and health promotion are central to climate change
adaptation and mitigation policies;
Promote preventative health care and the collection and analysis of scientific data relating to
incidence of disease.”
(Climate Change Committee, 2011b)
Following the green paper, the draft Climate Change Policy was developed with developed these areas as
well as
“Educate the public about best practices to deal with vector and water borne diseases emphasizing
that prevention is better than cure;
Improve preventative health care facilities and services as well as build the human resource
capacity at these facilities;
Develop emergency response procedures that can handle pandemics and epidemics, and increases
in vector and water-borne diseases.”
(Climate Change Committee, 2011a)
The recent impacts of the 2008 hurricane season and the global economic recession have all contributed to
the weakening of the economy (RLB, 2010). The decline in budget spending allocated to the health sector
after 2008 was expected to contract due to “high cost of overseas treatment, a fall in user fees and higher
contingent spending to return service to normal” (ECLAC, 2008). The government spending on health care
is significant; it is estimated to be 22% of the GDP for 2008 (WHO-AIMS, 2009) and previous to 2004
allocation to the Ministry of Health was estimated to be 18% of the territory’s expenditure (DEPS, 2004).
Expenditure for treatment abroad is also substantial due to the limited services in the territory (WHO-AIMS,
2009). Directly related to the health care sector, these challenges along with a possible increase in diseases
as well as increasing cost of water, sewerage and sanitation, may put added stress on the health care
system, resulting in a rise in the overall cost of health care (Climate Change Committee, 2011b).
As mentioned above, the Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike caused significant damage to the health
sector in 2008 amounting to US $29.7 million, 11% was due to damages and 89% due to losses (ECLAC,
2008). Table 5.4.1 below gives a breakdown of the total damages and losses. Overseas treatment
particularly for persons requiring dialysis and other emergency needs, accounted for the greatest
expenditure as the Grand Turk Hospital and other important institutions in the health care network
suffered damages during Hurricane Ike (ECLAC, 2008). There is therefore a need to cater for these
vulnerabilities. One initiative that addresses this and thus represents and adaptation of the health sector to
current challenges was the construction of two new hospitals in the territory which are discussed in the
following subsection.
122