The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands said officials are looking at various nursing homes to provide alternative accommodations for boarders at Princess Margaret Hospital.

Not only does the situation create a burden on public finances, but it has exacerbated a current bed shortage at PMH.

According to Dr Sands yesterday, it costs several million dollars to care for 31 boarders, an outlay government cannot afford.

“We’ve been looking at the various nursing homes considering the options (and) determining skill sets because once we take that initiative — bear in mind there are some legal implications whether we think there ought to be or not there are legal implications —so we have to move with all deliberate haste, but very carefully,” Dr Sands said yesterday.

Asked if assisted living care would be significantly cost effective when compared to allowing them to remain at PMH, Dr Sands told The Tribune: “Yes, the difference is the costs currently are not direct charges. Bear in mind we don’t have a line item in our budget for outsourcing care to nursing homes even though if you look at the cost to have somebody in a bed, the cost of food, the cost of staff, medical, physician care, housekeeping etc, we have priced that in a previous study done by Dr Greg Carey sometime in 2017. At that time the cost to the healthcare system was anticipated to be as much as several million dollars per year.

“Clearly we can’t afford a several million dollars outlay because we simply do not have that in our budget, but at the same time the cost that is borne by people waiting for beds and the attendant complications or morbidity is a cost that is also unacceptable and unreasonable.”

When he addressed Parliament yesterday, the Elizabeth MP said the Public Hospitals Authority planned to add 22 additional beds at PMH. The new beds will be available in six to eight weeks.

All three public hospitals have a combined inpatient complement of 1,010 beds.

This is juxtaposed against the need to accommodate in excess of 21,000 admissions annually, totaling 271,410 annual patient days.

During the 2015/2016 fiscal year, the hospital spent about $6.4m to facilitate the needs of boarders. This equated to about $17,819 daily.

At the time, there were 23 boarders at the hospital.