Appalling conditions!!!

Absolutely disgraceful!!! Our loved ones now deceased placed in body nags and put in bathtubs .....with ice because there are no morgue refridgeration......an...$50 dollars per Clinic per month...and in Nassau govt cars alone using more dan $50 gas per week!!!....plenty people should be shame face dis de way our loved departed ones are treated....bathtub....bey yall better try do better.

Sands has already wasted over $50 million on NHI alone over the past year. The funds are there, they are just being wasted!

As deplorable as this is, as incompetent and inept as it shows Government to be,
Is this not just grandstanding to get more tax money to waste? Which idiot thinks for one second anything will change? Government and value for money are concepts completely at odds and incompatible, from bidding to procurement across the board.

Stop paying the damn illegal Haitians a $300.00 bonus of our hard earned tax dollars for getting caught and deported and we will have more than enough funds to deal with this issue!

**DUH!!!**

Ma Comrades, no denying this red government inherited serious deficiencies within the public health system and it will take time to brungs resolve to out islands likes Cat Island - never the less - placing and icing dead family members bodies in family home's bathtub should have taken priority over all the jet setting, sleeping fancy hotel rooms and fine dining this prime minister and Imperial red cabinet ministers and government officials have taken around the globe and with their respective delegations in tow - all at the expense public purse. Have they no compassion for Cat islanders? In name Lord saviour, how children's goin bath prepare school with Grandpa all iced over in bathtub?

That is just ONE example from ONE island ........ check the other 95 clinics ....... some that have already been condemned.

Ma Comrade Sheeprunner12, shouldn't come as shock if ice not being used slow the process of decomposition at PMH's morgue - where it was a known fact under Papa Hubert's red regime they actually had placed dead bodies out parking lot in refrigerated trailers and there was no public outcry.

Well at least provide a 20ft refrigerated container on each Out Island for the use as a morgue ......... that is better than a bath tub full of ice!!!!!!

i say to myself always Bahamians don't live in the Bahamas.They live pile up like sardines in Nassau (New Providence) and Freeport. If they travel to some of the family islands they will be amaze at the hardships their fellow bahamians endure.

Almost EVERY Out Island government facility for almost every Department will have similar complaints ........... and in many cases, the Government is paying exorbitant rental fees to PEPs for use of public offices ......... This whole situation raises serious concerns over how the Central Government must continue to operate offices in these islands ........ or consider how best to decentralize this whole expensive, complicated mess.

Ma Comrades, isn't it common practice bury the dead on same day death on out islands. I'd suggest most to near all island settlements lack any form of a morgue. We have islands raking in millions dollars monthly in tourism dollars and they don't even have a damn nurse on island - some them islands have over 100 native millionaires living on them full time and in some cases operating highly profitable enterprises. What kind property taxes are these rich islanders paying into the public purse for the high value properties they live on?

Once again we prove the Bahamas is a complete disgrace.

"better in the Bahamas", biggest joke in the world; unless dirty islands with expensive low quality food, service and stuff are your thing. And definitely don't get sick, because we be 3rd world.

People need to hang their heads in shame , and keep them there until we actually do something to be proud of.

A shiny airport, when we don't have healthcare, just plain retarded. Did someone actually think that if we build a new airport people will say, lets go to the Bahamas / they have a nice airport in New Providence.

What a joke we are.

Does anyone know who was the representative for that area before May 10 Elections.

Same on Mangrove Cay, Andros.
Same complaints.
When a person dies at home, it is often a police matter.
Therefore, the body must go to Nassau for an autopsy.
Family members must run around trying to find ice.
Much needed renovations for our clinic were begun, then stopped after the election.
Again, a well trained staff, just beat down and tired of complaining.
Inexcusable. Absolutely inexcusable.
our MP and other officials. Not a peep. Non-existent representation.
A national disgrace that needs international attention.
Sands and the rest of them just don't get it.

Well its shows that successive governments have poured all the money into Nassau and in part , Freeport. Abaco is almost totally independent of the government, seems those family islands doesn't matter except some investor comes along and they put in place the necessary things for that islands to have modern facilities. No wonder people leave and go to Nassau. I see Chester Cooper complaining about Ragged Island, heck Ill be surprise if that every comes back on stream... only a fool will want to be a commissioner of police or a Prime Minister. I wish them well

Was this the case when Dr Sands was shadow Minister of Health before the elections? If so why didn't he make a point of this back then?

**2014/15 BUDGET COMMUNICATION**

For Cat Island, Mr. Speaker

By this time next year, when liberalization is well underway and in reliance on the IT platforms that will be created, I see radiology being performed in the a Mini Hospital in The Bahamas, read and diagnosed by physicians in The Bahamas and at the University of Miami, decisions being made in Miami and The Bahamas about what treatment and where. So it will be possible for a patient in Cat Island to be diagnosed in Nassau or Miami and then decisions be made about treatment.

**DEBATE ON THE ANNUAL BUDGET: FISCAL YEAR 2015/2016**

For Cat Island, Mr. Speaker

At Orange Creek, the entire building, which now houses the clinic and nurse’s residence will be converted into clinic space. All of the interior walls of the section, which now houses the nurse, will be demolished to accommodate the addition of trauma, dental, examination, pharmacy/dispensary, treatment rooms, a doctor’s office, public waiting area, a staff lounge, restrooms, and small kitchen. A contract for demolition works is being negotiated, floor plans are nearing completion, the scope of works is being costed, and work will begin during this fiscal period.

At Smith’s Bay, minor renovations are planned for the temporary health clinic on top of the hill so as to allow more storage space for records and supplies and facilitate electrical and air conditioning upgrades. The original health clinic is in poor physical condition.

Work on this clinic will be complete 8 – 14 months from commencement. Contracts for demolition and construction are now being negotiated.

At Bain’s Town in South Cat Island, site elements and sketches for the clinic were obtained with a view to carrying out major internal and external repairs. The building spaces require redesigning. My Ministry continues to work with the Ministry of Health to finalise the plans. In the meanwhile a demolition contract is being negotiated to advance the project.

**DEBATE ON THE ANNUAL BUDGET: FISCAL YEAR 2016/2017**

For Cat Island, Mr. Speaker

Comprehensive infrastructural developments are afoot. We have constructed over 4,500 feet of seawall and carried out sand seal repair works to the roadway throughout the island and works are ongoing.

We are cooperating with the Ministry of Health to complete assessments of the health infrastructure for the island. Government has already approved the issuance of a contract to demolish the Clinic at Orange Creek and construct a new one and also for a new clinic at Old Bight.

The other clinic at Smith’s Bay has been targeted for upgrading and a contract will issue shortly. These upgrades also assist the process of Health System Strengthening in preparation for NHI.