By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

OVER $100m worth of “unfunded” commitments were made by the previous Progressive Liberal Party administration for unspecified public healthcare initiatives, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands claimed yesterday.

Some of these commitments, Dr Sands said, were executed by the former government within the last week prior to the May 10 general election, while some were executed in the month before the election.

These commitments, Dr Sands told reporters, means the Minnis administration will now have to balance the need to “find monies” to deal with those commitments with attempting to deliver a more efficient public healthcare product.

To that end, Dr Sands said the government has an “ambitious agenda” to “dramatically improve the services and the quality of (public) healthcare,” chief of which is the administration’s plans to create a “seamless single governing structure” to oversee the administration of the public healthcare system.

Dr Sands said the government would introduce that concept and place “people in strategic positions to make that happen” at the “soonest time possible,” which he said would also better complement the government’s administration of National Health Insurance (NHI) services.

Addressing the “significant amount” of wastage taking place in the public healthcare system, placing a “tremendous amount of focus” on the Accident and Emergency Section of the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), and attracting and subsequently improving the working conditions for nurses are other “projects” the government is looking at, Dr Sands said.

He made his comments following a extensive tour of PMH yesterday morning.

During a press conference following the tour, Dr Sands was asked by The Tribune if he could state just how much money the former Christie administration spent on NHI up to the time it was voted from office.

Dr Sands did not reveal specifics in giving his answer, stating that the government was “trying to get all of those numbers together” in preparation for  Wednesday’s budget presentation in Parliament. However, he did say that various commitments made by the former government were “in excess of $100m.”

“As you can imagine in preparation for the budget, for finalisation of the budget, we have had to not only identify what has been spent, but we need to understand the commitments that have been made,” he said. “There are commitments that have been made in health that are as yet unfunded in excess of $100m. And that means that as we proceed, we’re going to have to find monies to deal with those commitments that have been made as well as deliver services moving forward.

“That is a very, very concerning reality, that in an era of transparency and accountability, we believe the Bahamian people have to know what commitments have been made in their name, what contracts have been signed, what contracts have been executed, to whom were they executed and when were they executed,” Dr Sands continued. “Some of them were executed within the last week prior to election. Some of them were executed in the month before the election.”

Dr Sands did not specify what those “unfunded” commitments were; however, just days before the general election, former Prime Minister Perry Christie signed a contract for the construction of a near $30m healthcare centre in Palmetto Point, Eleuthera.

At the time, Mr Christie said it would cost some $865,000 just to conduct the “initial earthworks” for the healthcare centre. Weeks prior, during the official commissioning of the Marsh Harbour Healthcare Centre in Abaco, Mr Christie said the Ministry of Finance had dedicated funding for the initiative.

“The accusation that we are minded to interfere, I don’t think people need to be concerned except to say that we need be sure that any decision made by this government on the behalf of the Bahamian people, has to assure value and benefit,” Dr Sands said. “And in healthcare the implications of that are extremely far reaching. It means whether people live or not, it means whether or not a loved one gets the care that they need at the time that they need it. And so we have a lot of work to do.”

 ‘Ambitious’

With regards to public healthcare reform in general, Dr Sands said the government’s attempts do not hinge entirely on what went wrong, but more so on what needs to be done.

“…There are a number of projects which have started, all or which would add phenomenally to the experience, to the quality of care that people get in our public institutions and we have to get them restarted,” he said. “While we could take some time and wonder how it is that they were stalled, why they were stopped, the charge now is to get things back up and running, the charge now is to introduce a level of quality and satisfaction that Bahamian people can say that when they come to the healthcare institutions anywhere throughout the Bahamas, that their perceived satisfaction is elevated, and that the quality of care that they get is improved.

“There is an ambitious agenda to dramatically improve the services and the quality of healthcare, in part relying on public private partnerships,” he added. “We got a lot of work to do, we’re going to roll up our sleeve and we’re going to get it done.”

Dr Sands also reiterated the Minnis administration’s commitment to NHI, saying that while the Free National Movement’s version will be “different,” the government will honour the “mandate” given by the “Bahamian people to manage their affairs.”

“The team at NHI have been given their charge, they are aware of the changes that they need to make in terms of the service delivery and the method of delivery of that service, and as we retool the public relations campaign, the advertisements, the educational aspects of NHI will be modified,” he said. “Bahamian people want what has been promised to them. We have committed to an effective National health insurance campaign, and we will deliver on that.”