By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

A NOTED surgeon has insisted that Prime Minister Perry Christie is desperate to create and leave behind a legacy when he took over leadership of the committee appointed to plan and execute the implementation of National Health Insurance in January 2016.

Former Free National Movement Senator Dr Duane Sands, in an interview with The Tribune, further questioned whether Mr Christie lacked confidence in his Minister of Health Dr Perry Gomez to ensure National Health Insurance (NHI) successfully comes into force. NHI was originally in Dr Gomez’s National Health portfolio, before Mr Christie moved it to his own.

Dr Sands maintained his doubts that the Christie administration would be able to meet its self-imposed time line for NHI.

Prime Minister Perry Christie recently told reporters he has decided to take a more hands on approach in dealing with the new health scheme as January approaches.

Dr Sands said: “The prime minister in my opinion is really fighting for some kind of legacy by this move. But one has to wonder whether Mr Christie as the prime minister is taking over a major programme such as NHI because he lacks confidence in his minister of health to execute this complicated initiative.

“It certainly would seem unusual or peculiar that you would make this serious choice in leadership in the 11th hour.”

Asked if he was of the belief that the government is on track to meet its deadline, Dr Sands said: “There is no chance in a warm place under the Earth for the implementation to happen in January 2016.

“They are going to begin registration and perhaps we could only speculate how long that could take. But for example, imagine voter registration which takes about 18 months. With voter registration we are not even talking about as many people as NHI registration. There is going to be a verification process and the government will have to ensure a fairly robust information technology system just to put it into perspective on how long that process alone could take.”

Last week, Chief Medical Officer Dr Glen Beneby said while the health scheme will be launched in January 2016, preparations to improve every aspect of the country’s health system will continue far beyond the implementation date.

Dr Beneby said health officials are now in full preparedness mode and have agreed on what is to be done with around 80 per cent of the health care system’s existing challenges.

At the time he said: “We believe that we would have completed enough to be in a state to launch in January 2016 but the preparation will have to continue long after that time.

“We are now in preparedness mode and have engaged all of the stakeholders so they are aware of what’s happening. We have agreed on about 80 per cent of the outstanding matters, but the remaining 20 per cent are more challenging issues and I think this will consume much of our attention with the stakeholders in the next three months.

“In terms of the health system strengthening, we are well on the way and we shall be prepared for the launch in January with a significant improvement in the system.”

The government has said NHI will be phased in over a five-year period. The Christie administration has allocated $60m for NHI in the current fiscal year.

Mr Christie recently told reporters that Peter Deveaux Isaacs has been appointed as permanent secretary of NHI.