FROM NEXT WEEK, Government will start promoting a six-month training programme aimed at developing the potentially lucrative medical transcription services industry. Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley reminded the House of Assembly yesterday that Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Owen Arthur had committed $8 million in this year's Budget to train 500 people over the next five years to grab a share of a US$12 billion global industry. Mottley was piloting a resolution in the Lower House to take note of, and to endorse, the Industrial Policy For Barbados' Manufacturing And Related Services Sector 2007-2012. She said Government believed that over those next five years, Barbados must develop two new sectors that had the capacity to export, and Arthur had pinpointed medical transcription services and the botanical sector. "We have been in discussions and negotiations with persons who want to establish themselves here to take advantage of the fact that many hospitals in North America and Europe . . . have doctors who speak into a digital recorder when they finish seeing patients," she disclosed. "And, those recordings must be transcribed within 24 to 48 hours at a level of 95 per cent accuracy so that they can go onto the patients' files." Earnings Mottley, who is also Minister of Economic Affairs and Development, said the average level of pay even in the United States was significantly higher than other call centre facilities, and it cost about US$3 500 per person. "We believe that even in the context of the Barbadian market, while our labour costs will be high, [the level of pay] will be higher than the basic pay that a lot of the employees in the traditional call centre industry are currently paid." She also noted that applicants would have to go through a six-month on-the-job training period to become proficient in the transcription of the notes, as well as in understanding the medical terminology used by the doctors. "Next week, there will in fact be the commencement of this public promotion to attract persons who want to be involved in this first batch of persons being trained," Mottley said, "and Invest Barbados and the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation are working in tandem, and therefore, you will see the tangible execution of the commencement of the build-out of that industry from next week." Mottley said Barbados had the profile of students exiting the school system who would adapt well to this type of training. (AB)
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