NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Doctors Hospital hopes to convince the government on a public-private partnership arrangement which could potentially eliminate the need for a new public hospital facility on New Providence and see the BISX-listed health care provider take on patients looking to access care at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
Dennis Deveaux, Doctors Hospital’s chief financial officer in an interview with Eyewitness News said that the healthcare provider was grateful for having been given the opportunity to step in and provide healthcare assistance at its Doctors Hospital West location after a major spike in admissions had left the Princess Margaret Hospital “bursting at the seams”.
“We intend to partner with the government of The Bahamas,” said Deveaux.
“We are so grateful to the Minister of Health and Prime Minister who called on us in a time of national crisis. We intend to say to the government that you have the option of not building a new hospital but instead partnering with Doctors Hospital in a public-private partnership. We are happy to work and serve Bahamians with level of quality they expect with the government acting as a financial guarantor.”
He continued: “We support the government of the Bahamas. The most important question people are asking in health care is if they get sick and they need a hospital bed, how it’s going to be provided. We have 31 beds at our facility at Blake Road and the government transferred patients to that facility and a patient had to be transferred to Shirley Street.
“Bahamians in that exchange were able to get care and their medical outcomes are different because they would have been placed in a hospital bed as opposed to a waiting room. We were grateful that the government gave us the opportunity in an hour of need. We are a Bahamian-owned and Bahamian-led company. I think it’s a great story when Bahamian companies can partner with the government to meet a need.”
Deveaux also noted that the healthcare provider through its Loyalty Advantage Membership Plan (LAMP) is combatting its reputation of being expensive. The medical services discount membership program provides its members access to fee waivers and discounts on outpatient and inpatient services at Doctors Hospital.
“The loyalty advantage program is the signature initiative of our president Dr Charles Diggiss,” he said.
“What we are trying to transform is the way people engage and manage their health care. It is no secret that Doctors Hospitals has been known to be expensive. People come to the emergency room and have to be admitted and it’s a big financial burden.
“The LAMP program is about letting the public know that the paradigm has shifted. Apart from the quality of care we want to be known for accessibility and affordability. The take up has been significant with LAMP in Nassau clearly but now also in Grand Bahama particularly in Eight Mile Rock where we are opening our new clinic. We should have probably done this a long time ago and we are seeing a surge in demand for the LAMP program,” said Deveaux.
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