Comrade Dr. Duane reads from the same blame script as "KP." Listen-up doc. Why is it challenging when if you honestly think the funds would be better deployed for the greater benefit healthcare seekers - don't complain, don't explain - when you can just pull the damn plug.

Tal. You're the PR officer for the PLP aye? You are worst than birdie strachan or you are birdie.

Why not centralize specialist medical facilities in Nassau and establish a reliable flight transportation service . For all this talk about mini hospitals most serious/complicated procedures will still have to be carried out in Nassau.

"Reliable flights" that's a stretch, imagine the added cost. They need to build a major facility like PMH in the southern island. The country has become too reliant on Nassau and it's obvious they can't handle the load.

Comrades! The first order business red government towards bringing online access to BahamaCARE to islanders - should be to switch over all our Lighthouses to cell phone towers.

Christie was the Minister of Finance and had a duty as the responsible cabinet minister to ensure that such foolish squandering of public funds did not occur. Yet we are hearing about numerous instances of mega millions of dollars of the taxpayers funds having been blatantly flushed down the proverbial toilet by Christie, Halkitis, Simones and others like them (right under their noses without the slightest care) as a result of their dereliction of duty and gross negligence in administering the people's affairs and their outright repeated failures to uphold the fiduciary duties impressed upon them by their respective public offices in callous disregard of the public trust. Carl Bethel should not even need a sharp pencil to bring serious charges against these former government officials for misfeasance, malfeasance and/or nonfeasance as appropriate......the evidence is all too glaring and our country must demonstrate to the rest of the world, as well as current and future generations of Bahamians, that we are not a 'banana republic' well on its way to becoming a failed state. This is the overriding mandate that was given by the vast majority of voters to Minnis and the new FNM government...and they had better respect it for the sake of our country going forward. We, the people, are watching most carefully!

Right on Mudda!

Remember when Pindling use to plant light poles and run miles and miles of electrical wire to settlements in the family islands and do the same with water pipes and phone lines. Just before elections But after the elections and the people did not vote for his party (or in some cases they did vote PLP) the equipment would sit there for years and years. Nothing new under the sun. Leopards do not change ways. In fact one time the PLP put up traffic lights in some family islands in the over the hill areas in Nassau and after the elections they eased those lights down. Then remember how they (PLP) would have the Defense Force guarding the water tanks on Blue Hill Road and the pumping station just off JFK as well as BEC switching stations. All a mind game. And, for the most part it worked.

BJ Nottage certainly did not have to worry about the serious problems involving our country's public healthcare system. Unlike most Bahamians he was very privileged to receive the best available private medical care in both the Bahamas and the U.S. at the expense of Bahamian taxpayers. Minnis was dead wrong in allowing in excess of $250,000 of U.S. medical costs and $50,000 of funeral costs to be added to our country's national debt for the benefit of the family of a former cabinet member (and long serving insider) in the most corrupt government we have ever had...to date. We will now have to pay interest to lenders for these borrowed amounts at a compound annual rate for untold years to come. Just like his corrupt brother Kendal Nottage, who was a long serving cabinet minister under past Pindling-led governments, BJ served for many years as cabinet minister (an insider) in corrupt Christie-led governments. BJ chose to play the role of loyal soldier to Christie and the PLP party notwithstanding his inside knowledge of all the corruption that was going on around him and that no doubt he too personally benefitted from. He therefore had no loyalty to the Bahamian people and it is the height of hypocrisy for Minnis to have saddled the taxpayers with these significant costs. One must ask why did Minnis do this? Is it because Minnis's own OBG medical practice, that is presumably being cared for by other medical practitioners in Minnis's absence as PM, stands to benefit from picking up a sizable portion of the medical business that BJ and his younger partners have enjoyed over the years? Who knows? But something does not smell right here. BJ's estate surely had the means to pay his U.S. medical costs and his funeral costs. The $300,000 plus dollars should have been spent towards fixing water fountains and restroom facilities that are in a deplorable (often non-functioning) state in so many of our public schools. Minnis and his cabinet members need to get a grip on the reality of our country's situation and stop throwing "feel good" money around that our country does not have to spend and must borrow at the end of the day!

Mudda these people are lucky enough to have health insurance paid by the government. Dr. Nottage's health costs should have been covered by his insurer except for a small copayment. If only the coverage government ministers had was the same as the proposed NHI coverage for all Bahamian. Sadly, as in the USA, MPs always get the best coverage.

If most of the NHI expenditures under the corrupt Christie-led PLP government had no grounding or basis in law, it can only be assumed these expenditures were unlawful. This means the accounting firm KPMG was paid millions of dollars by a government known to be corrupt and they (KPMG) as part of their due diligence turned a blind eye to all of the global and local KYC laws applicable to them in dealing with politically exposed corrupt government officials whom they should have known (just by virtue of the information in the public domain) were acting unlawfully in engaging their services. Rather than do the right thing, KPMG simply chose to jump onto the gravy train of corruption at the expense of Bahamian taxpayers. Here we once again see the abuses of public office and the public trust by key cabinet ministers in the former corrupt Christie-led PLP government as well as greedy private sector consultants like KPMG. Are you listening Carl Bethel?

@Mudda: It would be the height of lunacy and insanity for the new FNM government to have engaged KPMG to investigate any aspect of the previous Christie-led government's wide spread corruption. Minnis hopefully realizes KPMG should not be given an opportunity to cover up any of the wrong that they have done in allowing themselves to be engaged by a known corrupt government for exceptionally lucrative fees!

Right sizing our Family Island infrastructure should be a MAJOR priority for this government:

1. Why does Eleuthera need THREE international airports, while Long Island has none?

2. Why does Abaco have TWO major port facilities while many islands do not have ONE functional dock?

3. Why do many islands have primary schools with less than 20 students and high schools with less than 100 students???? Amalgamation should become mandatory where these exist.

4. Why are there so many islands with government services scattered all over the place in private rental spaces instead on one central plaza for simple logistical service??

5. Why is there not a Class 1, 2, or 3 health facility on each island or region of the country? Class 1 is PMH or Rand ..... Class 2 is a regional mini-hospital (Abaco, Exuma or Inagua) .... Class 3 is a local clinic

6. Why is there not island specific agricultural, fisheries, poultry, and pork facilities available to provide niche value-added industries for food security???????

THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO HEAR BEING DISCUSSED BY THIS FNM GOVERNMENT

Salient points, sheeprunner.

11 million, not so bad.

If we borrow that at 5% , interest would be 550k per year.

6 patients a day x 365 days a year is 2190 patient visits/ year.

Equals $250.00 per patient in interest payment alone. Maybe another $150 per to cover doctors fees.

Maybe 100 per patient to run building

Surely some healthcare money already being spent on these people

Is 500 per patient per year really that bad