NASSAU, BAHAMAS — When her father died after being emergency airlifted to New Providence in 2020, Felicia Saunders set out to become an emergency medical technician, enrolling in an EMT course at the Bahamas Medical Learning Center.
Eight months later, she and her classmates are grappling with an alarming development: the Health Professions Council has not approved the school’s course, and students won’t be eligible for a license even if they complete the programme.
According to Chief Superintendent Matthew Edgecombe, police are now investigating what the students say is a scam that has set back their ambitions and raised questions about the level of oversight provided in the industry.
It is not clear whether the National Accreditation and Equivalency Council (NAECOB) has approved the Bahamas Medical Learning Centre to provide people with preparation for health certifications in The Bahamas.
The institution is not listed as a recognized institution on NAECOB’s website.
Dr Richard Knowles, chairman of the Health Professions Council, said yesterday that the council previously rejected the BMLC’s application for approval of its EMT programme.
“They have been notified from the information I have that their application was incomplete and they were notified of our position, which is that we had some areas of concern and would not approve the programme at this time.” he said.
“Now that you have brought this matter to our attention, we will have to do our investigation to gather the information and refer the findings on to NAECOB and some determination will have to be made from there onwards.”
Saunders, whose real name has been withheld at her request because she fears reprisals, said she and her classmates were drawn to the BMLC because its Facebook page “looked professional” and its website “seemed legit”.
The BMLC’s Facebook page is regularly updated and is populated with stock photos.
Its website spotlights a laudatory review from a woman named Tina.
Its website says it offers at least eight courses and that the institution was conceived by Dr Elwood Rolle in 2003, established in 2006, and has a “team of ten members comprising of instructors, advisors and support team personnel.”
In its 2020-2021 class catalogue, its director, Rolle, said he created the institution to “provide quality allied health training programs that are not only enriching to our students, but that are structured to provide the student with cutting edge information…”
Rolle told Eyewitness News yesterday that he would return a call to discuss the concerns of the students.
However, he did not return the call or respond to messages before press time.
Saunders said after paying about $2,700 for the programme, it did not take long to realize that something was wrong.
“Five months into the programme, we got no materials,” she said.
“The classes were always cut and the classes were canceled without warning.
“We never got our materials in a timely manner. We completed up to chapter 12 out of 40-something chapters in the book and the course was supposed to be up to six months.
“It was just not professional.
“Not only did we get no materials, but I started to do an investigation into the school and I found out that the school was not registered with the HPC.
“Whenever a person graduates or completes their EMT training, in order for them to be licensed to practice in The Bahamas they must be covered by the HPC.
“So, even though we dropped out of the course when we found out what was happening, had we finished it we still would not be able to gain our license.”
In response to students’ withdrawal from the course, Rolle, in a purported letter on March 28, 2022, wrote them to say that the institution was prepared to offer them $1,000 in three installments.
“Please be advised,” the letter said, “that we are not in the position to grant a full refund due to various expenses incurred over the passed (sic) months relative to your EMT certification course training.”
He purportedly wrote them again on March 31, 2022, proposing to restart the course, extend the period for which their outstanding fees could be paid and offer $70 for each student to put towards their National Registry of EMT-Basic certification exam.
“As an official test-site for the American Medical Certification Association,” Rolle added, “we are able to offer international allied health career certification for Bahamian students. The BMLC is prepared to offer the students of this class a 25% discount on any one of our certification courses such as our (Medical Assisting, Phlembotomy, Patient Care Technician, or EKG Technician) programs.”
Rolle also said the institution was prepared to give the students a 20 percent discount on paramedic and advanced EMT training going forward.
“We have taken the necessary steps to strength areas of weakness within our school’s operations which contributed to the previous challenges in our EMT certification course,” the letter said.
“We have replaced previous instructional staff and have acquired new EMT instructors to ensure that the program runs more efficiently and without undue last-minute cancellations.”
Institutions or programs that lack approval from regulatory bodies can have severe consequences for those who utilize their courses knowingly or unknowingly.
In 2018, the Court of Appeal upheld a Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Pharmacy Council to de-register more than a dozen people who had obtained their degrees from the McHari Institute, which the council found was not accredited.
The council concluded the institution was not accredited after making inquiries with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the HPC and NAEC.
Saunders said she told Rolle a $1,000 refund would not be enough.
“I said to him that’s not going to work when I had to basically come up with $1,000 on the first day just to enter the course,” she said.
“That can’t work for me and I want to go to another course. Where am I going to find another $2,000 plus to go into another course in such a short period of time?”
“After the back and forth, I still waited to see if there would be a resolution to it. It’s now three months later and it’s still not resolved. It’s like two different classes that have now experienced this, to the point where we went to the financial crimes unit of the police force and we put in a complaint.”
Saunders added: “We all have civil lawsuits against him to try to obtain our school fees back. I’m to the point where I have to expose him because he has another class that is enrolled and he’s still not registered with the HPC.”
