By ANNELIA NIXON

anixon@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister is urging Exuma residents to invest in rental housing so that the staff required to make the island’s mini-hospital fully operational have somewhere to live.

Dr Michael Darville, minister of health and wellness, told Tribune Business that “Exuma housing is a problem” given that four more doctors are needed to staff the mini-hospital. “Healthcare is a growing profession,” he added. “We want to expand the services in Exuma. We’re planning to do it.

“We have finally finished our interviewing exercises to recruit nurses and doctors to be able to accomplish this. Yes, there are shortages. And so the community of Exuma could rise to the occasion to assist the Government for accommodation of nurses, doctors, teachers. It’s a growing workforce, and they need accommodation. So the private sector may develop apartments, and if not, the Government will have to intervene.”

“And so we’re going to have to find accommodations, and the community must be able to work with us in order to do it because healthcare professionals, dental professionals are absolutely essential, along with teachers,” Dr Darville added.

“And so we’ve been looking at our assets that we have on the Family Islands. I know, in Abaco, I have some assets that have been dilapidated for about eight, nine years that we are now looking at to renovate because sometimes we have to find accommodation for our staff.”

Dr Darville said Bahamians can “win” by allowing the Government to rent from them as it could “pump” significant money into the economy. “Sometimes going into these Family Islands, accommodations are very hard. And I had a major problem in Inagua with that. So that is an issue that the ministry is looking at,” he said.

“But we are also hoping that private sector groups on Exuma and the Family Islands will invest in accommodation and win from us renting. So we’re looking to find a way for how locals could be empowered with real estate to rent to the Government. Because it’s not always good to go there and build it. Sometimes it’s good to pump into the economy.

“So there is a great need for rental space in Exuma, Abaco and even Bimini. And yes, I’m bringing in 23 to 25 doctors to fill in the gaps. Fortunately, the bulk of the doctors, the majority of four, will be in Exuma. I need an additional in Abaco,” Dr Darville continued.

“I do not really need that many, but Exuma will be the one that gets the largest amount of doctors out of the batch that’s coming in. So, yes, that’s something that we have a discussion on, on where they would stay, first of all, in the short-term and then in the long-term. So that’s an issue. Housing is always been an issue.”

Dr Darville said transportation is another issue he is facing as it pertains to sending healthcare workers to Exuma. However, an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan has helped finance 15 ambulances to improve ground transportation.

The minister said he is looking to train students from the Family Islands through grants and scholarships and have them return to their respective islands for service. “You take, for instance, in Exuma,” he said. “We would like to recruit nurses as well as allied healthcare professionals from Exuma, train them so that they could be domicile at home.

“Rather than bringing someone in from Nassau, the ones in Exuma, they just go home. And so the Public Hospitals Authority, my ministry, we’ll be sending flyers and information to all of our clinics throughout the Family Islands, trying to recruit students to be a part of this programme that we’re starting with Bahamas Baptist University, where they can come into Nassau.

“They can be trained and, on completion with their clinical rotations in the hospital, they can be placed in the community, particularly at the Exuma clinic that is going to be converted to an urgent care facility first, and then we’ll add additional services after we finish that blueprint.”