EDITOR, The Tribune.

The recent photo of eight patients crowded on the porch of the Critical Care Block at the Princess Margaret Hospital was an ominous reminder of the overcrowding dilemma at the nation’s leading public health institution, owing to soaring COVID-19 cases. The photo also accentuates the perception of the widening economic gap between wealthy and poor Bahamians since the advent of what former American President Donald Trump derisively labeled the “Kung Flu.” Poor Bahamians sick with COVID-19 have no other alternative, other than to seek medical attention at either the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) or the Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport or some other government owned clinic. Some choose to coalesce at home.

They cannot afford catastrophic health insurance coverage, nor can they afford the admittance fee of $10,000 or $1500 a night for a hospital bed at one of the leading privately owned medical facilities in The Bahamas. For minimum wage workers, $10,000 represents nearly an entire year’s income. How many Bahamians have immediate access to $10,000? And that’s just to get admitted into the clinic.

What I have noticed in the press is that certain political figures, when they came down with the coronavirus, as reported by either The Tribune or The Nassau Guardian, they went to a privately owned clinic. I am grateful that these persons were able to receive top notch healthcare at these facilities. However, their decision to bypass the PMH and the Rand is a tacit acknowledgment that they don’t even trust the public healthcare system their policies have helped to formulate.

The same thing can be said about the public education system. Notice that many policymakers school their children in private schools. Like the public health system, this is circumstantial evidence that many former and current Parliamentarians don’t trust the educational system their policies have helped to create. When the economy dried up in 2020, it was poor Bahamians who bore the brunt of it. For wealthy Bahamians, life went on as normal as possible, considering the inconveniences brought on by the COVID-19 restrictions.

This is just fodder for thought.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama.

August 4, 2021.