By ANNELIA NIXON

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Exuma is set to receive more doctors, nurses and new medical equipment at the Community Mini-Hospital in the near future, according to Minister of Health and Wellness Michael Darville.

Dr Darville told Tribune Business he has plans to upgrade both Exuma and Abaco’s sister clinics with Exuma’s upgrading to an urgent care facility, providing more services. As of current, residents have spoken on the facility lacking many services and healthcare professionals to which Dr Darville said is due to a worldwide shortage of doctors and nurses.

“Now, coming out of the COVID pandemic, there was a shortage of manpower resources around the world. And you could still see it being played out at our tertiary facility here in New Providence, where there’s shortage of nurses and there’s shortage of other allied healthcare professionals. And so for about eight months, I brought in 40 Cuban allied healthcare professionals and 16 biomedical engineers.

“When we look at Exuma, the total requirement of doctors in Exuma is seven. We only have three. So I’m short of four for Exuma.”

Dr Darville said his short-term plan is to recruit from around the world while training Bahamians to take over in the long-term. Mr Darville revealed there are 40 allied healthcare professionals in the country “getting ready to be deployed to the Family Islands”.

He said: “Based on finding the manpower resources we’ve been recruiting from the Philippines, Cuba, Africa, very difficult to recruit from the United States back to this area. And we have a very limited recruitment process in the Caribbean because we’re experiencing shortages ourselves. And so as part of CARICOM, we’ve made the decision that we should not recruit from one another, so we have to go to other countries.

“I have been trying to recruit doctors for the last 15 months and I’m pleased to report that we are in the final stages of bringing into the island some 25 physicians from Africa. We already finished all of our interviews of nurses, and I plan to bring 60 nurses from Africa in three tranches of 20 over the next few months. On top of that, we plan to bring in an additional 23 doctors from abroad to assist us with the massive shortages we have to deliver in the public health throughout the Family Island, including Exuma and Abaco.”

Mr Darville added he has to recruit from abroad to temporarily bandage the healthcare worker shortage because it takes about five years to train nurses.

He added: “It takes you about two years to train clinical nurses. It takes you about two years to train radiographers and lab technicians, pharm techs and renal techs and orthopedic techs. All of these are essential professionals that you need to run your clinics and your hospital. And take into consideration during the COVID pandemic and even up to today, there’s still recruitment in The Bahamas by the United States and Canada, particularly in the nursing population. And so we have to keep recruiting and training.”

He said the government will provide scholarships for allied healthcare professionals “but on contract for employment” which will bond the, for a period of time. He said he will reveal more information on training, including information concerning Grand Bahama.

“I’ve broken ground for the hospital in Grand Bahama. And the rule of thumb is when you break ground, you must start training almost parallel so that you’ll have the manpower resources to do it.”

Dr Darville added he is trying to “attract students in their relative communities” so instead of having to be deployed, they will simply return home.

He said: “You take, for instance, in Exuma. 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 PHA, 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 program that we’re starting with training 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 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.”

He said the equipment at the hospital are also currently being assessed.

“For the last five months, my biomedical engineers have been at both facilities assessing the facilities, determining which pieces of equipment is now redundant and replacing them with more modern equipment.”

Multiple residents, including Exumian Kenneth Nixon, complained of the current mini hospital not having a dentist to provide free dental care. Dr Darville said equipping the island with a public dentist is also on his checklist. He said a biomedical team of five is going to Exuma for the final assessment to look at dental chairs, dental x-rays, and to “get the actual main x-ray up and going in order for us now to begin to take that facility to an urgent care facility”.

“And so we intend to get the dental service,” Dr Darville said. “As a matter of fact, me, the director of public health and the director of oral surgery will be in Thailand, I think sometime this month or early next month to make sure that all of the WHO requirements are met for us to expand our footprint for dental services throughout the Family Islands as well. So my biomedical engineers will be in their next week, weather permit, for the final checks for us to ensure that all of the dental equipment and the panoramic x-ray machine that was put in there initially, we believe that they’re currently obsolete now, and we need to replace them. And so they’re going to be looking at our x-ray machines to disassemble the unit, because we have already gotten approval for 14 new x-ray machines to be placed throughout the Family Islands, and one of them will be in Exuma. And we are moving swiftly to get the medical equipment in place now that I have a formula for the manpower. We got the medical equipment. And so our first step for Exuma is to get Exuma up to an urgent care facility, and we have the manpower resources that we intend to bring in the country before the end of the year to start the process. But as I speak, I have the allied healthcare professionals already in the country doing their essential rotations at the Princess Margaret Hospital before being deployed to the Family Islands.”

Mr Nixon also pointed out the need for a doctor specialised in handling dialysis, however, Dr Darville told Tribune Business that a dialysis unit is not on the agenda for this budget cycle.

“Dialysis is a very complicated thing - the economic situation associated with dialysis. We’re not speaking about putting a dialysis unit in Exuma. We need to renovate the Princess Margaret Hospital, legacy ward, and create additional dialysis beds in new providence. So my entire dialysis program as it stands right now, is focus, laser focus, on improving the delivery of dialysis services in new Providence first.”

Mr Nixon also stressed the need for a gynaecologist and prenatal care on the island to which Dr Darville said will become able once the facility has been upgraded to urgent care status.

“When we create this into an urgent care facility, we will be doing the antenatal services in Exuma. We may not in the initial stages, do general deliveries, simply because we have to put some other things in place.

“So let’s do one step at a time. Step one is urgent care. Step two is going into more sophisticated things, like getting some surgeries done there. And step three is to add more secondary healthcare services at the facility itself.”