The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

FORT Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins has suggested the government review the fiscal practices of those who manage the country’s public health care system and look specifically at how finances are spent in the lead up to National Health Insurance implementation.

He said the government should also consider whether those public health care executives should be replaced.

Dr Rollins further questioned whether generating more money by imposing additional taxes on Bahamians would result in improved conditions that have plagued public health care for years.

The severity of such issues was highlighted in a report completed by Costa Rican consultants, Sanigest Internacional.

The 500-page report, turned over to the government last October, highlighted a myriad of problems in the public health care sector. It was revealed that in 2010, 723 deaths could have been avoided if the victims had access to adequate health care. It also noted that patients at Princess Margaret Hospital’s public wards were more likely to die than those admitted to the facility’s private wards.

Dr Rollins said: “The question we need to ask is whether having increased amounts of money is going to result in those kinds of problems being solved.

“Some would argue that more money will always help things get better, but then there are others who say that’s not the case especially if you don’t have better management of that money.

“I don’t believe that it should be taken lightly that we have issues that need to be addressed, but I think we need to take serious stock of the quality of management that is currently taking place within the public health system. We need to determine whether that management could get more out of the monies that are being spent and if not we need to look at replacing those who are currently responsible for managing that particular sector of the economy.”

Dr Rollins reiterated that he did not believe Bahamians should be burdened with additional taxes to fund NHI before a national lottery is implemented.

“(The government) refuses to look at the monies that could be made from implementing a national lottery. That’s a voluntary tax that you do not force people to pay. But if they choose to that is billions of dollars that can be made, like in the United States, which is used to fund education.

“If you look at it, it is a $900m industry, as estimated by the minister of tourism who is responsible for gaming. Why can’t the government play a role in that industry so that the funds derived there could be applied to the public health system, if you say that more money is in fact going to help that problem.”

Sanigest found that emergency response times for ambulances in New Providence was on average 34 minutes in 2012-2013, well above the recommended eight minutes arrival time for advanced life support (ALS) calls.

In Grand Bahama and Abaco, average response times were 17 minutes 51 seconds and 11 minutes 47 seconds respectively for the same time period.

Death rates for patients at PMH’s public wards are more than 100 per cent higher than those of patients in the facility’s private wards, the report also found.

Health Minister Dr Perry Gomez has said that the findings of the report highlight the government’s case for moving forward with implementing NHI.

The government plans to implement the universal health care scheme in January 2016.