The Tribune

• Ex-health minister hails Doctors/Cleveland GB plan

• Medical tourism ‘one of few viable’ COVID revivals

• Says tie-up ‘shot in the arm to bring Freeport back’

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Doctors Hospital’s proposed Freeport “flagship” with the Cleveland Clinic is “exactly what the doctor ordered” to revive the Bahamian economy post-COVID, an ex-Cabinet minister asserted yesterday.

Dr Duane Sands, former minister of health, told Tribune Business that the two sides’ potential partnership in developing a private Grand Bahama hospital could pave the way for The Bahamas to truly break into medical tourism, reduce overseas medical spending by locals and develop an expanded high-quality workforce to underpin the sector.

Arguing that The Bahamas had few other viable short-term options for both rescuing and diversifying its economy in the pandemic’s aftermath, Dr Sands said the venture “might be the proverbial shot in the arm to bring Freeport back” after more than 16 years of economic contraction and misery.

Suggesting that Grand Bahama could attract a global market seeking high-quality healthcare, Dr Sands said the Doctors Hospital/Cleveland Clinic tie-up also offered the possibility to create strong synergies with the planned $64.2m Western Atlantic University School of Medicine project.

That investment, for which a Heads of Agreement has already been signed with the government, is also to be located in Freeport. It is understood the School of Medicine has signed a lease for the real estate it will use, and it offers the potential to develop a cadre of medical professionals who could learn and also train at the proposed Doctors Hospital/Cleveland Clinic facility.

“We now have the opportunity to get serious about medical tourism,” Dr Sands told Tribune Business. “This is not something that is a novel or new idea, as it’s been discussed for many years, but to see the rudiments of it taking shape is quite exciting.

“I look at this as an incredible opportunity. If we look at the options in our economy right now, this happens to be one of the most viable options we can explore. If people are talking about diversification, this is it. We try to be careful to avoid hyperbole, but I think Freeport is very well-positioned for a medical project such as this and it might be the proverbial shot in the arm to bring Freeport back.”

The ex-health minister spoke out after Doctors Hospital last week revealed that launching a Grand Bahama healthcare facility “comparable to our New Providence” hospital by 2022 was an ambition that has been made possible by a $13.5m equity investment in the company from Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings.

Dr Charles Diggiss, Doctors Hospital’s president and majority shareholder, told Tribune Business the new capital will enable the BISX-listed healthcare provider to accelerate an expansion pace that will also take it “beyond the borders of The Bahamas” and into the wider Caribbean by 2025.

However, development of a private “in-patient” care facility in Grand Bahama is one of “two spaces” where Doctors Hospital is seeking to first put the Fairfax Financial investment to use.

While declining to provide much detail on this project, Dr Diggiss said six months of planning work had already been performed on what could become the “flagship” facility for its recently-unveiled partnership with the Cleveland Clinic.

“It will be at least comparable to what Doctors Hospital in New Providence is, but we’re looking at an ability to expand it and consideration given, due to our relationship with the Cleveland Clinic, whether that becomes the flagship Doctors Hospital/Cleveland Clinic facility in Grand Bahama,” he told this newspaper.

Dr Sands said the potential for that facility to become a medical tourism launching pad “is the type of thinking that will get us out of the challenging state we’re in right now. I say that when you build it, make sure you build it high......

“We’ve got to liken it to the decision that India made when they decided to become the IT capital of the world,” he added. “Will this little mouse of a country [The Bahamas] roar by saying it will become the leader, innovator and capital of healthcare? That’s absolutely do-able, particularly when you realise we don’t have some of the limitations or restrictions of some of the very rigid regulatory regimes, particularly in the US.”

With the Doctors Hospital/Cleveland Clinic facility attracting patients from across the world, and especially from North America, Dr Sands said: “We have the opportunity to provide cutting edge healthcare, and I’m not talking about snake oil solutions or quackery; I’m talking ethical healthcare that has European approvals and is done in parts of Asia, but lacks US approvals.

“A massive market in the world exists for Americans and Canadians travelling to access top-shelf, healthcare not available in the US because of regulatory regimes and legal liability challenges.... There will be some challenges. There is the spectre of a foreign [medical tourist] invasion, but I think that managed well this could be exactly what the doctor ordered.”

Dr Sands, noting that medical tourism and healthcare partnerships with overseas providers are nothing new, given that the Government and private providers have talked to the likes of John Hopkins University, Baylor University and the University of Miami in recent times, voiced optimism that this vision is “coming closer to fruition”.

“The principals involved seem to be very serious individuals; let’s see if we can make it happen,” he told this newspaper of the Doctors Hospital/Cleveland Clinic/Fairfax Financial alliance.

Besides medical tourism, Dr Sands said the partners’ plans also held out the possibility of providing improved treatments for Bahamians and residents such that it would sharply reduce the leakage of healthcare dollars outside The Bahamas.

“I think we have to look at the bigger picture,” he added. “The bigger picture is while we have a reasonably decent level of healthcare services, we can do a lot better. We need only look at the out-of-country spend to know that if we manage to elevate our healthcare services considerably to a potentially world class level we can at least recoup some of that spend; not all, but a reasonable percentage.”

Estimating that Bahamians likely spent $400m per year, or 40 percent of total healthcare expenditure, outside the country, he added: “Think about what an infusion of $100m spent in The Bahamas would do to this economy.

“Ultimately, I’m sure their business plan will look at recouping a certain amount of spend over a period of time. The other thing this [GB facility] does is give options for top-shelf Bahamian professionals to return home to participate in, to lead, to guide such a venture.”

Dr Sands said the Doctors Hospital/Cleveland Clinic tie-up will potentially enable Bahamian medical professionals to practice more advanced medicine, including research and laboratory services. He added that the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, and Health City in the Cayman Islands, were examples of major healthcare investments that have succeeded despite being located in relatively remote areas.

Noting that the Western Atlantic University School of Medicine’s nearby investment held out the potential for “synergistic activity of the highest order”, Dr Sands said the ability to offer clinical education and training to both Bahamian and international practitioners was “how you build a college town”.

“Look at St George’s University in Grenada,” he added. “It’s the single largest foreign exchange generator in Grenada. When it started people thought it was a fly-by-night, but it has kept their economy afloat.

“To imagine that we could have a medical school or series of medical schools with a world-class clinical facility in place that gives the opportunity for professionals of various disciplines to have a career, or be trained or to do research...to me, that’s a no brainer.”