The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Christie administration has finally “opened up all avenues of communication” as it relates to the formation of National Health Insurance, according to leading cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Duane Sands.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, the former Free National Movement senator said it was time for the lines in the sand to be smoothed over, insisting that the government has given the appearance “of an effort to get it right”.

Dr Sands said while he doesn’t envision the roll-out of NHI would come as promised in April, it doesn’t make sense to squander a chance to move the country forward.

“Today is March 8. It is highly improbable that we are going to see the clinical roll-out of NHI (in April). There is still too much important work to be done,” he said yesterday.

“At this point we don’t know if or how the KPMG report would trump the Sanigest report. Which one is the government going to side with or work from? Is it a combination of both? All of this still has to be sorted out, put out there.”

The government has said NHI’s primary care phase will begin in April. But last month, Minister of Health Dr Perry Gomez said a delay is “likely”.

Dr Sands said physicians are still on board to assure that once the scheme is introduced, it has all its element working well.

Dr Sands termed NHI as a major undertaking that requires non-partisan and civic consultation to work.

He said all matters connected to the proposed scheme need to be constructed in a manner where all persons projected to benefit see and understand what they will be afforded under the new policy prior to its implementation.

“We support NHI and we believe in NHI. We just want the best model possible. We are dealing with something that is very critical for the country. We need to know that all the minor details are adequately addressed before it is started.”

“To date, that hasn’t been the case. But we can’t sit back and fuss these facts without working to resolve them. We can’t allow the government to say today that they are going to go ahead with what they have and only give promises to fix issues along the way,” he added.

“The government has opened the avenues of communication and we are working together along those channels.

“It doesn’t make sense to squander this chance to move our country forward by bickering, it would make more sense for us to lend to the debate and try to petition the government to go the best possible route.”

He added: “In The Bahamas, we already have universal health coverage. Now we need National Health Insurance; our job should be ensuring that the model we get here is the best for us. We already have a good health system, what we want to do is make it better.”

On Sunday, head of the Consultant Physician Staff Association Dr Locksley Munroe said he intends to request an extension from the NHI Secretariat to allow doctors more time to review the NHI draft legislation in greater detail, citing that aspects of the legislation were unclear or insufficient.

Dr Munroe also said NHI officials have been coy about the costing of NHI and have not shared with the doctors their plans to introduce the third phase of the scheme, the vital benefits package.

The Christie administration is expected to present the NHI legislation in the House of Assembly in the coming weeks.