The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

With COVID 19 spreading like wildfire in The Bahamas, the Bahamian people are now finally focusing on the facilities at the Princess Margaret Hospital. They say it’s too small, it isn’t efficient, and a new one should be built.

Many years ago, Dr Andrew Esfakis and I were discussing the Princess Margaret Hospital. This was fifty years ago and his opinion was that, because of the traffic and the difficulty of getting there in an emergency, the hospital should be moved.

Years later, I had my first experience. My father-in-law was seriously ill at his home in Nassau East. An ambulance was called to carry him to the hospital. I rode with him in the ambulance to the hospital.

It was during rush hour and the traffic was bumper to bumper. It took us almost two hours to get there. By the time we arrived, he was dead. As the years go by, the traffic gets worse. The time getting to the hospital gets longer.

When the large expenditure for the “new” hospital on the present site was discussed, I objected and said that the hospital should be moved; however, it was built anyway.

Several years ago, a member of our staff was rushed to hospital. One of my staff members dropped me at the entrance. When I entered the new section of the hospital, I was floored at the beauty and space of the entrance. I asked which door would take me to the emergency section.

A very helpful member of the hospital staff pointed to a door. I opened it, and to my shock the same old hospital was in front of me. When I entered the emergency room, it was crammed full of people and appeared smaller than I remember the emergency room to be.

The doctor in attendance said that the patient needed to be in a dark room. He was rolled into a closet where only the gurney could fit. The closet was full of medical equipment.

Now they speak of spending so many millions to build this wing and that wing. It appears to be a real topsy-turvy operation.

We still can’t get there quickly in an emergency. Same ol’ same ol’. So why not bite the bullet, move the location and build a completely new hospital?

It should be built on a large piece of land. Highways going to it should be large enough so that in an emergency cars would have room to pull on the side to get an ambulance through.

It should have adequate parking and room for a helipad so that patients from the family islands could get to the hospital easier.

And it should be designed in a modular fashion where new additions could easily be added.

Is this asking too much? Aren’t our people entitled to that?

Where do we get the money? Good question. Firstly, design it so that the entrance doesn’t look like a hotel lobby. Make it efficient.

Cut out the frills. For example, how much did those steps from Shirley Street to the Hospital’s entrance cost? Are they used?

Close all of those “pay-off” accounts in Miami, and insist on paying the “real” price for supplies.

Having now cut off the fat, let’s look at the bone. Where’s the rest of the money coming from?

Believe it or not, the Princess Margaret Hospital is sitting on one of the most valuable economic properties in The Bahamas. Sell it! But not like it’s usually done. Divide the property into a real “economic subdivision”, and sell it to the various financial institutions, shops, etc.

Be sure that government doesn’t sell it all to one of its cronies at a low price and let him/her sell it at a real profit. Yes, folks, they know what I’m talking about.

Having covered most of the cost by the sale of the land, any bank would be happy to lend the rest of the money needed to finish the project.

But, before anything is done, there are no payoffs or under the table deals.

When I was a Cabinet Minister, a well-to-do gentlemen came to me to discuss investing in The Bahamas.

We talked about many things and when the meeting was over he said to me: “How much do I owe you, Minister?”

Shocked, I told him there was no charge and asked him why he asked me such a question.

He replied, “I was told that you had to pay the Minister.”

He was equally shocked when I told him that there was “no charge”.

So folks, there it is for what it’s worth. I know of what I speak.

PIERRE V L DUPUCH

Nassau,

October 21, 2020.