Dr Sands: Transparency needed on catastrophic healthcare programme

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Health Minister Dr Duane Sands has called for greater transparency surrounding the government’s catastrophic healthcare fund, about which little has been said even though it was a significant policy initiative of the Davis administration.

A total of $10m was allocated to help Bahamians pay for life-threatening healthcare services.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said in July 2022 that the programme would be fully audited and that “serious” guidelines would be established for how the money is spent.

He said the fund is for Bahamians who lack the financial means to access lifesaving medical treatments. He suggested each case go to Cabinet for approval. The administration wants the fund to precede catastrophic healthcare insurance, a long-held promise of the Progressive Liberal Party, which introduced National Health Insurance in 2016.

However, it is not clear when the fund will be audited, and the guidelines for spending the money or accessing the service have not been released publicly. Dr Darville did not respond to several calls and messages seeking comment yesterday.

Dr Sands, who said he supports the initiative and believes it could be a game changer, said there are lingering questions.

“Who qualifies?” he asked yesterday. “Who makes the determination and so on and so forth, because you’re talking about $10m of the public’s money. We would like to know how much of that money has been spent. How much has been spent weekly? How much is spent monthly?”

“How many times can you go to the well, and if you go to the well, is there a limit to how much one person can get? Because you’re only talking $10m, right? So what if somebody needs $1m?”

Dr Sands said he knows several patients who have benefitted from the programme, the latest being a 29-year-old man with no health insurance who underwent emergency open heart surgery and is now doing fine. 

He said hospital and surgeons’ fees for that operation cost around $80,000. 

“But I don’t know who else got money,” he said, “nor does the public know who else got money and so, yes, the programme is doing incredible things for some people, and I can attest to it because I have had patients who have benefited from it.”

Dr Sands does not believe the government should reveal people’s private medical information, but wants officials to disclose the demographics of the beneficiaries, among other things. 

“Even though there is a potential to be tremendously impactful, that potential is reduced because the terms, the rules, the adjudication process, is not clear for all the stakeholders,” he said. 

“In the instances where we have referred patients to get assistance, some patients have definitely gotten assistance, lifesaving care and certainly in those instances, the fund worked as intended, but notwithstanding that, I think there needs to be a whole lot more transparency to avoid even the perception that there is not a fair level playing ground in terms of accessing funds.”