By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Dr Perry Gomez yesterday suggested that the achievement of the proposed implementation of National Health Insurance could lead to the reduction of the country’s “unacceptable” infant mortality rate by enabling prospective mothers to receive adequate antenatal care.

Dr Gomez said that universal health coverage would help many of the nation’s poorest residents to obtain health coverage without the fear of “the embarrassment of being asked to pay and not having the money.”

Based on a 2014 report prepared by international accounting firm Sanigest Internacional, death rates of people aged 18 to 64 admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital’s public wards stood at 2.7 per cent compared to a death rate of 0.5 per cent for those of the same age range in the private wards.

Those younger than 18, excluding newborns, had a death rate of 0.7 per cent in public wards while there were no deaths for this age group in PMH’s private wards.

Dr Gomez confirmed in an interview with The Tribune that the nation’s infant mortality rate stood at a rate of 22 per 1,000 adding that the rate was of “great concern to the government.”

He claimed that as a country, the Bahamas should be ashamed.

“We are 22, it is disgraceful. With or without National Health Insurance we have to remove that.

“Most countries are single digits. Barbados is 10, Cuba is the best at 0.3 per 1,000. As rich as a country we are, we have an infant mortality rate that is unacceptable,” said Dr Gomez.

“You would be surprised to know why so many persons are crowded in our hospitals already too sick, beyond a disease process that has gone to far. They can’t afford to go to a clinic or a doctor of their choice,” he added.

He said that the central feature of universal health coverage proposed by the Progressive Liberal Party remains the removal of money from the point of service.

“The removal of money at the point of care will cause people to go to our clinics for routine checks at a much more frequent rate – that is one of the things that keeps people away from routine check ups or going in when they have symptom, the inability to pay for service,” he said.

The government intends to roll out the first phase of NHI in January 2016.