The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

IMPROVED healthcare in Exuma will be the first order of business for Free National Movement (FNM) candidate Navarro Bowe if elected to serve next month.

Addressing scores of Exuma residents and FNM supporters at the party’s headquarters at a rally in Hooper’s Bay, Mr Bowe said it was unfortunate that the mini-hospital that had been constructed by the previous FNM administration has not been stocked with the necessary medical equipment and personnel that the island needs.

“Our mini-hospital will become fully functional and fully equipped to service all of our medical needs and I do stress all of our medical needs,” Mr Bowe said to applause.

“You will receive a full-time dentist, an emergency vehicle to accommodate emergencies across the entire island. There will also be an evaluation into the closure of the Stevenson and Forbes Hill clinics to ensure we have proper continuous access to health care services.”

The political hopeful also said that Black Point and the surrounding Exuma cays, as well as Ragged Island, will have a higher frequency of visits by healthcare professionals, expanded infrastructure and diagnostic capabilities for the existing healthcare facilities on the ground.

On April 19, government officials commissioned the Marsh Harbour Health Centre as part of the Progressive Liberal Party’s National Health Insurance plans.

Construction of the healthcare centre began under the former FNM administration. When the current administration came into office, it spent $1m renovating the facility, Prime Minister Perry Christie said at the opening.

By December, the island is expected to have 16 nurses, five doctors, a radiologist and two lab technicians. The facility boasts an administrative wing, pharmacy and a morgue where autopsies will be performed.

Mr Christie noted during his speech at the ceremony in Abaco that a similar facility is planned for Exuma, to be opened “in the shortest time possible”. Residents of Exuma have complained about the status of the $14 million mini-hospital on the island.

In January, 2016, Tribune Business reported that while the building was completed some two years earlier, the mini-hospital was not fitted out with the necessary medical or pharmaceutical supplies, and no doctors or nursing staff were assigned to it.

On Saturday, FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis, in echoing Mr Bowe’s sentiments on the government’s failure on Exuma’s healthcare front, confirmed that “as a doctor and as the former minister of health, your healthcare needs will be front and centre in my government”.