The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

DOCTORS Hospital Health System (DHHS) said yesterday that it was anxiously awaiting the final regulations to govern stem cell therapy in the Bahamas, telling Tribune Business that once they are in place “we will go from there”.

Barry Rassin, president of DHSS, said yesterday: “To my knowledge they have not finalised the legislation as yet. They sent it to the University of Miami for their comments. I understand that they have it back and are waiting to finalise it and we are getting closer from what I understand. But that is as much as I know.”

Mr Rassin added: “We are not going to do anything until we get regulations finalsed. It’s just too risky to do anything until you know what the government will allow you to do. Once it is finalised we will apply for a licence to provide stem cell therapy and then we will go from there.”

Mr Rassin further noted that the Bahamas Medical Centre was developing nicely, with strong buy-in into its wellness programme. “We’re developing. We have a programme coming on stream in a few months which will be a big boost to us. Things are going well. The wellness programme, I’m really excited about it. People are buying in. It’s a major part of what we are doing out here.”

Commenting on the issue of National Health Insurance (NHI) Mr Rassin said that without all of the details it was difficult to say how private health care providers would be impacted. The government has announced it intends to implement NHI in January 2016.

The programme has been proposed as a means of providing universal access to affordable health care for Bahamians. Parliament passed an NHI Bill in the final months of the 2002-2007 Christie administration, but no regulations were ever finalised to enforce the legislation and bring it into effect.

“We need to know the specifics. How are they going to bill private health care into National Health Insurance, it’s really hard to say. It could be wonderful, it could be bad. Conceptually its good to be able to provide the public with good health care protection how that works is important and until you know the details of how it works it’s rally hard to know where you stand,” said Mr Rassin.