By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Doctors Hospital is poised to this week launch a $1.5m upgrade of its main Shirley Street hospital with patient visits to its non-tertiary care locations having surged by almost 31 percent year-over-year during the 2025 financial period.

Dennis Deveaux, the BISX-listed healthcare provider’s chief financial officer, told Tribune Business that it is “using a fine tooth comb” to identify necessary improvements to its 70 year-old main hospital building in a bid to provide patients with “an environment that is aesthetically pleasing” and matches the quality of treatment they receive.

Disclosing that the Shirley Street enhancements will take place over the next 12 to 18 months, he added that they will involve “structural upgrades” to the hospital’s exterior plus changing out air conditioning HVACS and improvements to windows.

Mr Deveaux also told this newspaper that non-hospital visits by patients to clinics and other locations, which had been open in 2024, jumped by 30.8 percent year-over-year during the 12 months to end-January 2025. He hailed this as signalling “a paradigm shift” in Bahamians’ attitudes and approaches to healthcare where persons are now seeking treatments and preventative care before ailments become life threatening and need hospital intervention.

Noting that patient visits, or utilisation rates, at Doctors Hospital’s pre-existing locations had significantly exceeded the network’s overall 18 percent growth, which includes facilities open for less than a year, he added that the percentage of persons making repeat visits to the same site was as high as 50-60 percent in some cases.

The Doctors Hospital financial chief confirmed that another “priority” is the construction completion of its Grand Bahama hospital, which it is “aggressively pushing” to achieve before the 2025 year-end. He added that spending on the $25m project is “contained” and there are no difficulties staying within budget.

Conceding that the company’s legacy Shirley Street hospital is “a little dated”, and that patients have said as much, Mr Deveaux told Tribune Business: “We will initiate plans to make physical and aesthetic upgrades to that facility. It’s a building that’s 70 years-old, and last year we completed the full refitting of the roof to prevent water intrusion.

“This week we’ll begin repairing some of the other areas, some of the issues on the exterior of the building, changing HVACs, a new coat of paint, addressing legacy structural issues. A new elevator will go in later in the year. We are still combing through the building with a fine tooth comb and will give it a full facelift that spans over the next 12-18 months.

“Beyond quality of care patients expect an environment that is aesthetically pleasing and we have work to do there.” Asked about the likely investment required, Mr Deveaux said it will be split between both the capital and expenses side of Doctors Hospital’s budget, and added: “I think the initial cost would likely see investment north of $1.5m…

“Most of that will be spent on windows, HVACs and exterior structural upgrades.” Despite suffering a $2.85m bottom line reversal during the year that closed on January 31, 2025, swinging from a $1.945m profit during the prior 12-month period to a $905,603 loss, Mr Deveaux said patient volumes - as well as the 5.6 percent top-line growth enjoyed during the first-half of its 2026 financial year - are cause for Doctors Hospital’s cautious optimism.

“Notwithstanding that, right, we still grew out-patient pre-hospital services,” the finance chief disclosed to this newspaper. “These are services where patients have to see a doctor to have laboratory work or imaging such as scans for breast cancer done.

“Our utilisation rate - we track patient visits - and they grew by 18 percent. These are pre-hospital visits excluding the emergency room at the main hospital. Looking at comparable sites, our activity grew by 30.8 percent for sites we had open in 2024 and that were also open in 2025. They actually grew at almost double the rate of our consolidated position.

“That tells us more more people are coming to the existing sites, and those that come are coming back,” Mr Deveaux said. “We don’t publish that data, but it is in excess of 50 percent - and at some sites, 60 percent - of people coming back. We’re seeing patient return rates as high as 50-60 percent.

“We’re really seeing a paradigm shift in how people are accessing healthcare services, and how they think about health and wellness. We want folks to think about health and wellness before they visit the emergency room. The emergency room visits deal with acute ailments, and is one stop in health and wellness that is over-saturated.

“That 18.2 percent increase in pre-hospital care is where we want people to engage healthcare professionals with a less costly setting and earlier. That allows us to focus on prevention and diagnosis as opposed to acute illnesses.”

As for Doctors Hospital’s biggest ongoing investment project, its much-needed and long-awaited Grand Bahama hospital, Mr Deveaux said the healthcare provider had been forced “to solve” some impediments but is now applying to the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) for permission to turn-on temporary power to the facility.

“We continue to plough forward,” he added of the $25m project. “I’m spending a day in Grand Bahama every week now. We continue to foreshadow completion in construction within the year. There have been some things to solve technically with getting power to the building. We retrofitted an old building (the former First Commercial Centre) and expect to have that behind us imminently.

“We are making application to the Grand Bahama Port Authority to turn on the power to the building. That will be a milestone. That temporary power will then allow us to turn on other critical systems in that building. We thing it will be all downhill from there. We are aggressively pushing to have it completed this year.”

Mr Deveaux said an operational start, or opening, date cannot be given yet because some operations will have to be transferred from Doctors Hospital’s West Mall Drive location once construction is completed. “Spending is appropriately contained,” he added of the Grand Bahama hospital. “We’re not seeing any budget issues. That project is fully leveraged. Spending is contained. We just have to land that project for the people of the northern Bahamas.”

Meanwhile, Doctors Hospital has so far spent $3.3m of its planned $7.5m total investment in its Village Road imaging centre. “The total investment is around $7m; I think it’s at $7.5m in Village Road,” Mr Deveaux confirmed. “Just through period end we had spent roughly $3.3m, just under half-way there.

“We’ll look to bring that capacity online some time towards the end of the first quarter next year. We need to work on that. There have been some changes to that project, but it’s not material for accounting purposes. It’s a matter of when we squeeze that project in. Our priority remains Grand Bahama and getting the upgrades to the main plant done.”