NASSAU, BAHAMAS- An ex-health minister warned that there “is no free lunch” as the government proceeds with plans for a $290 million hospital, calling the move “contemptible” and “disgraceful” as the country’s health care sector issues were far bigger than simply “brick and mortar.”
Dr. Duane Sands the Free National Movement’s Chairman and former health minister during the Minnis administration’s early years, acknowledged that the infrastructure of PMH was “woefully outdated” and in serious need of repair, successive administrations had committed to a phased redevelopment of the country’s primary health care facility as relocation had been determined to be too expensive.
Sands stated: “This is more borrowing, tax, and spending. First of all the concept of fragmenting acute care in New Providence makes no sense in light of the limited specialty clinicians and nurses in particular. Twenty years ago the government of the day concluded that building a new hospital to replace PMH would be too expensive and so we agreed on a program of phased redevelopment. The Christie administration bought into it, the Ingraham administration bought into it and the Minnis administration bought into it. The Bahamian people spent tens of millions of dollars for Fred Perpall and the Beck Group to plan a phased redevelopment on the PMH site starting with the Critical Care block. We invested some $100 million into the Critical Care block which is now being allowed to deteriorate because it is not being maintained. In 2021 the then Minister of Health Reneward Wells spoke about approved plans for a $55 maternal child health wing. How did this thing balloon from $55 million to $290 million? It makes no sense.”
Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville recently stated that The Government plans to break ground on the new hospital in the Perpall Tract area by September 2024, with the project having received concessionary financing from a Chinese state-owned bank. Dr Darville last year confirmed that 14 acres out of the total 50 to be used for the facility are being obtained from Sir Franklyn Wilson and his companies.
Sands stated: “They don’t have the money and ultimately there is no free lunch. The construction and design model will sideline Bahamian construction professionals but ultimately Bahamians will be left to foot the bill. I think it is nothing more than pork barrel politics and I think the Bahamian people should push back. I have worked in the health care system in this country for 30 years and I can tell you that the primary issues are not simply brick and mortar. Let’s solve the fundamental problems around healthcare and perhaps we can improve the quality of healthcare.”
Sands questions how the government could seek to construct new facilities but cannot secure ambulances and repair broken equipment at PMH.
“We have big beautiful mini hospitals in Abaco and Exuma with new equipment never used because there are no pharmacists, radiographers, and so on to run them. I find this contemptible, and disgraceful because you are playing with people’s emotions, knowing that healthcare is so important and you would wish them not to understand the complexities of decision-making. It’s disgraceful. The infrastructure at PMH is woefully outdated and needs to be replaced but when you are going to have critical care where, maternal child healthcare, x-rays, and imaging elsewhere, you make it almost impossible to do without duplicating human resource requirements,” said Dr Sands.
