Princess Margaret Hospital. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune staff
By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
THE Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) collects less than $200,000 a year from the 60,000 emergency room patients it treats, a Cabinet minister revealing: “We pay more in salaries for staff to collect that money”.
Dr Duane Sands, minister of health, in a sobering presentation on The Public Health Policy of The Bahamas last Thursday night, said: “We see almost 60,000 patients a year in our emergency room at PMH. I’m talking about gun shots, stabbings, strokes, heart attacks etc.
“We collect on average $2.50. We collect less than $200,000 a year in our emergency room. We pay more in salary for staff to collect that money than we collect. Where we are headed with that policy is probably to eliminate fees at the door. It doesn’t make any sense and is an impediment to people receiving care.
“Direct charges tend to dissuade people from accessing care. Indirect charges provide a level of social solidarity, equity and allow you to even out the playing field. The concept of mandatory participation in a plan like NHI (National Health Insurance) is really the way to go.”
Dr Sands, in a presentation delivered at the University of The Bahamas, said the notion that healthcare is free had created some “real problems” in The Bahamas’ healthcare system. “There is the issue of health financing, and the concept we have created that healthcare should be free has created some real problems in terms of maintaining capacity, building out infrastructure, getting the right human resources,” he added. “How you debunk that view that healthcare is free will allow you the ability to fight against all these things.”
Dr Sands said The Bahamas has suffered because of both poor, and a lack of, public health policies. “Health policymaking involves more than just the ministry of health. Health has to be incarnated in all policies of government,” he argued.
Comments
bogart 5 years, 7 months ago
WRONG....WRONG...WRONG.........EVEN YINNA COLLECTING $2.50 AVERAGE........POSITIVE EVEN YINNA ASK DA POREST.........PMH CAN COLLECT ....$20..PER PATIENT.........SOMETING....IS WRONG.....60,000 INJURED...AN DERE FAMILY WILL NOT PAY ......AT LEAST $20...EACH....seems management policies scares da bejesus wid huge bills....an gets nothin in return......ie if 60,000 x $20 = $1,200,000..... better than $200,000.......see,s problen is wid management....even we pore jonsers can come up wid more than nothin or $2.50.....done hear story woman tells sorrowfull story to one other askin ....an pore woman pulls $10 from bosum an gave it ......YA PMH MANAGEMENT IS OBVIOUS DA PROBLEM.....NOT DA PATIENTS....
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 7 months ago
Our illegal alien problem is bleeding our public healthcare system to death. Our government should be billing the government of Haiti for the significant healthcare costs we incur in looking after their people.
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