The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Medical technologists yesterday slammed the use of a National Health Insurance (NHI) forum for product promotion as “an affront to the profession”.

Bonaventia Culmer, past president of the Bahamas Association of Medical Technologists (BAMT), told Tribune Business that the unexpected promotion of the PTS Connect product had reinforced fears that NHI was seeking to ‘cut out’ certified medical laboratories.

The ‘promotion’ occurred during the lunch break at the recent NHI forum, held at the Police Conference system on East Street, which was attended by a wide-cross section of the healthcare industry.

Ms Culmer said the PTS Connect was promoted by its agent/supplier as a ‘point of care’ (POC) testing device that Bahamian doctors could use to conduct clinical tests in their offices.

This, she explained, only served to exacerbate the BAMT’s concerns - based on reports received from doctors - that the Government’s NHI Secretariat was encouraging physicians to purchase such equipment, so that they would have to rely less on medical laboratories to test blood and body fluid samples.

“It wasn’t the forum for is,” Ms Culmer told Tribune Business of the PTS Connect promotion, “and this gave the impression that NHI was pushing the physicians to get these instruments in their offices.

“We felt it was an affront to the profession. We’re in a forum where we’re trying to decide on legislation that affects the whole country.

“Then you have a presentation on POC, saying to doctors this can go into your office. It was a little disquieting, and took us aback as laboratory professionals.”

The BAMT has already raised these concerns in a January 27, 206, letter sent to James Cercone, president of Sanigest Internacional, the Government’s lead NHI consultants.

“The recent presentation made during lunch, on a single POC instrument, the PTS Connect,..... and at a forum designed to affect one of the most important health legislation in recent times in our country, was an affront to our profession,” the BAMT said.

“Not only was the presentation biased to a single company, and not to the legislation of POC, it was a promotion to bypass the lab. This was evident by the questions and concerns raised by the two physicians that responded.

“It cannot be the role of Sanigest or the Government to promote a single company in this manner, or to promote to our physicians ways to bypass the use of the medical lab for any lab test. We simply ask that this type of promotion be left to the companies, the salespersons and to anyone who may be interested in such a product.”

The BAMT, in other documents seen by Tribune Business, warned that healthcare quality could be “compromised” by the Government’s plan for doctors to conduct laboratory tests themselves under NHI.

It added that the proposal could result in tests being conducted by “unqualified” persons, and said: “It has been brought to our attention that physician offices have been asked and advised by the NHI Secretariat to import instrumentation to begin lab testing in their offices by unqualified staff members.

“Some of the tests being done are considered complex tests where substantial errors may result, and thereby these tests require proper standards and licensed personnel whose focus it is to ensure quality in the testing or all samples.

“Results have shown that in the absence of quality standards in laboratory testing, the public’s healthcare is compromised.”

Ms Culmer yesterday said the NHI Secretariat had reassured the BAMT, and the individual medical laboratories, that it was not instructing doctors to import their own clinical testing equipment (see other article on Page 1B).

However, Dr Duane Sands and other physicians have confirmed that this is exactly what the Government’s NHI team were asking them to do.

Dr Sands yesterday backed Ms Culmer’s assessment of the ‘product promotion’, arguing that an NHI forum was an “inappropriate” venue for such a sales pitch.

“Here it is: We’re supposed to be talking NHI, and over lunch we have a vendor explaining the merits of a POC device,” he told Tribune Business. “How in the hell did they get here?

“To me, I don’t think it was an appropriate thing to have happen, and particularly as it was not a discussion about the general theme of point of care devices, but a particular vendor hawking or promoting its wares.”

The BAMT, meanwhile, urged that doctors also be required to take out extra malpractice insurance if they offered testing services, placing them on a ‘level playing field’ with standalone medical laboratories.

And, given the complexity of some clinical tests, the BAMT told Mr Cercone that doctors who signed up to NHI’s full Medical Home model, and offered allied health facilities, must have a certified medical technologist on staff “for the performance, monitoring and supervision of the laboratory”.

“These facilities must also meet laboratory licensing requirements by the Hospital and Healthcare Facilities Board,” the BAMT said, adding that it was “eager to work” with the Ministry of Health and College of the Bahamas (COB) in developing a Bachelor’s Degree in Medical Technology.

“Training of medical technologists in this country is one that BAMT has pursued with the College of the Bahamas for more than 20 years,” the BAMT said.

“There is a shortage of medical technologists in the Bahamas and on a global scale. It is our strong recommendation that a request is made by our Ministry of Health and NHI team for the vetting and implementation of a degree programme by the Ministry of Education.

“We feel its implementation will directly affect the ability to provide universal healthcare, provide professional jobs for Bahamians and provide research opportunities.”