By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie has indicated that his government is going ahead with the implementation of registration and enrolment for National Health Insurance in January and plans to move to the next phase by March.

Speaking in Grand Bahama on Friday, Mr Christie said that by the beginning of a new budget year in July, government will have given thought on a leap forward in 2016 with creation of a major fund, pending the introduction of benefit packages.

“When doctors ask what happens when you introduce primary care and a patient comes to them and gets NHI to pay for their services, what happens if the doctor diagnoses that (the patient) has some catastrophic illness? The government will cover itself pending introduction of benefit packages by creating a major fund, hopefully, that we will be able to access to cover such exigencies and intervention,” he said.

“We are not going to cause a disruption in the economy, and we are going to do it on a basis that will be manifested in the best interest, not just of the people of the country but for the economy where outside rating agencies look at the economy and look at government’s decision and say whether it is good or bad.”

The prime minister said he has taken “a major commitment not to place on the economy of the Bahamas a burden that the economy cannot accommodate”.

“Even though by its very nature and outcome it is of enormous significant consequence to the lives of people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, we made a decision that until such time as people could see and feel what they would be paying for we were going to use central government, the Consolidated Fund, to meet the cost of implementing initiatives, and so we went to contract and we continue to go to contract to put the facilities of the Ministry of Health in the best possible position for people to appreciate the changes that are being made,” he explained.

Mr Christie said all clinics in Grand Bahama have been remediated, improved and renovated, with the exception of the West End Clinic, which is expected to undergo improvements in January. The extension of clinic hours at Eight Mile Rock Clinic, he noted, has greatly reduced pressure on medical services at the Rand Memorial Hospital.

“The research of the Ministry of Grand Bahama has demonstrated that extending clinic hours allow people in that part of Grand Bahama to have access to medical services there (at EMR Clinic) as opposed to the Rand,” he said.

It was recently reported that wait time at the Accident and Emergency at the Rand had been reduced by almost 20 per cent.

Mr Christie will be proposing the same extension of clinic hours in New Providence.