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Patients are trapped by lack of funds

Health Minister Dr Duane Sands.

Health Minister Dr Duane Sands.

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands said yesterday the government is still trying to decide what it can afford to do regarding the homeless patients who are lodged at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

He said following an evaluation of the “heartbreaking” problem several months ago, the government now knows there are several options which include building a facility for the patients or subsidising existing facilities to care for them.

This issue is one of great expense to the government, reaching a whopping $7m each year, Dr Sands has told The Tribune.

His comments came after The Tribune exclusively revealed the plight of the long-term boarders, four of whom are children, who appear to have fallen through the cracks.

There are 28 boarders presently at PMH costing the public hospital more than $15,000 a day.

Repeated calls were made to Social Services Minister Lanisha Rolle, however she could not be reached for comment yesterday.

However, when he was contacted, Press Secretary Anthony Newbold told The Tribune Mrs Rolle instructed the director of Social Services to look into the issue.

Dr Sands said: “What we have done is we have properly and objectively looked at the problem. When we did the evaluation a few months ago it was anticipated that these boarders cost us about $7m a year.

“Now in order to move them out of the hospital they would have to be moved to an appropriate facility that would provide them with the type of support that they would need. You can’t just put them out on the street. Some of the nursing homes are not adequate in terms of the skill sets they provide.

“So what we are trying to do is determine what it is that we can afford to do because either you would have to create your own facility and staff it with patient care technicians or some nursing staff or whatever or you would have to provide a subsidy to these other homes in order to provide the services that these people need because you don’t want them bouncing back and forth from the hospital because we don’t have the level of nursing home care that we could just do it tomorrow.”

He continued: “Nor do we have (a) line item in the budget that says we got three million that we can spend to provide that subsidised care.

“The opportunity is there, but in order to benefit from that opportunity you need the funds to do it and so what we are trying to do is identify where those funds are. But the impact on the ordinary Bahamian and the ordinary patient is huge.

“Because in addition to beds being occupied by boarders, we also have beds out of commission because of construction. So between the two of them, that’s a hundred beds or as much as 20 per cent of the total beds of the hospital.

“This is a chronic problem. This is not a problem that just started last week or last month or last year. It’s heart breaking, but it is a consequence of the challenges in our country.”

Several current boarders have been at the hospital for as long as five years; however nursing staff provided several accounts of persons that were interned as infants and left as teenagers.

It is a phenomenon that also calls into question the efficacy of state-run social services, which work closely with the hospital to manage cases, but are largely unsuccessful.

“This topic is a controversial topic,” Principal Nursing Officer Valerie Miller told The Tribune last week.

“It’s not one that the public is keen on hearing because it casts some aspersions on them to some extent, but PMH is really plagued by what we deem boarders. Boarders in our setting are those persons who would have come in to seek medical attention, and at the completion of their treatment the physician deemed it was fit for them to return home.

“These persons would not have been collected and discharged and hence they remain with us and we refer to them as boarders. Many of them are not on treatment and some of them are like many persons who take tablets at home every day so just taking medication is no indication to be in hospital. We have boarders ranging from one-month-old to 84 years.”

She added: “This would be something that’s in the society and the society has changed and some persons truly have nowhere to go. We always do our assessment, a complete physical assessment and history taken on the patient, and sometimes you have your antennas going up at the very beginning that this is a potential problem.”

Nurse Miller spoke to The Tribune during its investigation into reports that there were several young children who were living at the hospital indefinitely. Presently there are four children: two infants, a five-year-old, and an 11-year-old.

Some 15 years ago, the hospital utilised a school bus to take school-aged boarders to and from school; nowadays, Nurse Miller said there is a trained teacher onsite to ensure that children are able to keep up with the curriculum while receiving long-term treatment.

However, she told The Tribune that there has been no change in how boarders are managed by the state since then.

Comments

TalRussell 7 years, 3 months ago

Comrades! The government can begin to reduce costs by disconnecting the telephone of Minister Lanisha's office telephone - the one she obviously has no interest to learnt how to dial?

Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 3 months ago

This is what happens when we allow our greedy politicians and senior civil servants to elevate themselves to the so called privileged class of 'elites' in our society......they quickly forget about the poor, underprivileged and very needy. Dr. Minnis who served as Minister of Health under the last Ingraham administration has never once taken it upon himself to speak out about the plight and dire needs of the 'boarders' trapped within our public hospital system. Truly sad!

CommonSense 7 years, 3 months ago

$7M a year?? I'm sure that they can find somewhere for them that costs far less even when the facility's capabilities are considered.

ThisIsOurs 7 years, 3 months ago

Probably covers round the clock care for them and medications. Let's say a seven day stay in the hospital costs about 5,000. By 52 weeks by 30 patients totals 7,800,000. Add to that the additional costs of schooling the children, don't know if they're taken on outings. Then you have to purchase all their supplies, clothes, shoes, books, diapers etc. who knows how expensive the medication is....

Most Bahamians (including myself) don't appreciate the real cost to run PMH because we're not asked to pay for it. But the hospital would know the number of nurses required to care for these patients, the cost of a hospital bed, medications etc.

Somewhere else might be more expensive, some of the children are mentally impaired, that means specialized care round the clock. This doesn't look like an easy problem to solve. This practice of "boarders" has been going on for over 20 years. No easy solutions.

BahamasForBahamians 7 years, 3 months ago

I'm curious how these figures were calculated.

7m is alot to house less than 30 people. Are they receiving Atlantis or Ocean Club type services?

Is this a true figure or is this figure being tossed out to create a false alarm and justify more spending to come?

TalRussell 7 years, 3 months ago

Comrades! As cruel it may sound behind some reasons 'family members; are dumped at the PMH....but sadly the reasons does also pack a mean and cruel punch that going mule force kicks you squarely in heart - including left to hopefully die earlier than later, and at the expense of the state so greedy and selfish family members can inherit more of the little, or much more of the discarded like trash - worldly assets. Some we own neighbours, and family members, are going get one way tickets -straight to roast in the burning flames hell.

SP 7 years, 3 months ago

While the government is still trying to decide what it can afford to do regarding the homeless Bahamian patients who are lodged at the Princess Margaret Hospital, we also have Ms. Pierre, and activists Louby Georges and Stephanie St Fleur demanding Bahamians foot the bill to provide education, social services and healthcare for illegal Haitians!

Haitian activist Ms. Pierre, Louby Georges, and Stephanie St Fleur definitely have a distinctly different set of priorities than taxpaying, entitled Bahamians.

We cannot afford to have it both ways. Either take care of illegal Haitians, Jamaicans etc' who could care less about our country, culture, and people or take care of our own people for a change!

DDK 7 years, 3 months ago

"Haitian activist Ms. Pierre, Louby Georges, and Stephanie St Fleur definitely have a distinctly different set of priorities than taxpaying, entitled Bahamians." Perhaps they should activate in their own country!

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