Other Health News
In late 2023, the results of the STEPS medical survey carried out earlier in the year found 70% of the Islands’ residents to be overweight and 37% to be obese, which indicated almost no change from a similar survey carried out in 2012. The survey is a tool to assess the level of health risk factors for non-communicable diseases in a nation’s population. Whilst alarming, the results were not dissimilar to those found in the US recently. Medical experts believe these results are a result of the population consuming imported, processed foods, and adopting similar eating habits to our international neighbours.
More worrying is that, according to the Public Health Department’s school entry screening obesity data report for the 2023-2024 school year, 9% of children were overweight and a further 13% were obese. You can lean more about Cayman's childhood obesity epidemic by reading this article on Cayman Parent.com. Cayman faces huge sociological, economic and educational challenges to bring these figures down. With these findings in mind, it came as no surprise that in May of 2024, the Ministry of Health & Wellness conducted a public consultation to help shape a new National Health Strategy for all three Islands, the results of which are pending.
In August of 2024, changes to the Pharmacy Act came into effect with an overhaul of the existing 45-year-old legislation. The Act includes a new regulatory framework for the importation, manufacture, wholesale, and dispensing of medicines, as well as new licensing measures for making and selling medicines locally, and restrictions on international mail-order medicines. The bill also allows for the use of non-approved medicines in emergencies.
Elsewhere in medical law, abortion is still illegal in Cayman, and since the overturning of Roe vs Wade in the US courts in 2022, residents of the Islands have even fewer options when seeking an abortion overseas. The Cayman Law Reform Commission is finalising its recommendations for amendments to Cayman’s own abortion legislation, with a view to expanding the grounds for which one can seek an abortion legally in the Islands.
In East End, the much-touted and large inpatient mental health facility, ultimately named the Ponciana Rehabilitation Centre, opened at the end of 2025 after years of delays and budget overruns. The administration building and nine cottages, the latter housing up to six patients each, were originally budgeted at around CI$15 million but by 2024, that figure had ballooned to over $23m. The 15-acre facility was intended to help fill a critical gap in Cayman’s long-term mental healthcare resources. However, as of February 2025 the facility remains minimally occupied with inpatients. The Government finds itself in the process of rethinking how best to make full use of the facility, including the option of incarcerating the criminally insane.
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