The Government of The Bahamas took another “significant” step in its ongoing heath systems strengthening initiative with the recent deployment of five Family Medicine Specialists (physicians) to key Family Islands.

The deployments ensure that the Government, through the Ministry of Health, the Department of Public Health and the Public Hospitals Authority, now has placed resident doctors on every inhabited island of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas – a first for the local public healthcare system.

The five physicians – Dr. Allen Cho (Berry Islands); Dr. Nicole Adderley (Exuma); Dr. Phyllis Darville (San Salvador); Dr. Keyasha Smith (Bimini) and Dr. Keith Rivers (Marsh Harbour, Abaco) are all graduates of the Family Medicine Residency Programe launched by the Public Hospitals Authority in 2012 as the first Post-Graduate Residency programme at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

Dr. Cho’s presence in the Berry Islands along with Drs. Darville (San Salvador) and Dr. Smith (Bimini) also represents the first time those islands have a full-time physician (Resident Doctor) to conduct their medical affairs.

“One of the main goals of this programme (Post-Graduate Residency) was to improve the quality of, and access to, comprehensive and continuous family health services to the residents of The Bahamas,” Minister of Health, the Hon. Dr. Michael Perry Gomez said Thursday.

“The doctors who complete this intensive programme are Family Medicine Specialists who have broad knowledge and understanding of health and illness and their dynamics in the community, particularly in relation to the existing socio-economic and cultural conditions.”

Dr. Gomez said the five physicians have also been equipped with the ability to serve as qualified, effective leaders of healthcare teams based in the community.

The deployment of the five specialist physicians, Dr. Gomez said, not only further allows the Government, through its health agencies, to expand its Family Medicine Programme into the Family Islands, but is also a key component of facilitating implementation of the health infrastructure needed to make National Health Insurance work at its optimum.

“As part of our continuing initiative to improve access to primary healthcare, the Family Medicine Programme has been expanded into community public health clinics with the deployment of Family Medicine doctors, and this recent deployment highlights the furtherance of our objective of scaling up access to this vital medical specialty,” Dr. Gomez said.

“All of this comprises my government’s commitment to ensuring that residents of Family Island communities have full and equitable access to care, particularly primary healthcare, comparable to that enjoyed by residents of New Providence. This remains a high priority for the Ministry of Health going forward as it is a hallmark of the National Health Insurance Programme’s implementation.”

Dr. Gomez said improving the country’s healthcare systems, its healthcare infrastructure, and the public health services public health specialists deliver in local clinics and hospitals is an essential first step in the phased implementation of National Health Insurance.

One of the greatest challenges the Government of The Bahamas has faced, and continues to face in providing healthcare, Dr. Gomez said, is the “archipelagic nature of our little Commonwealth.”

Staffing the country’s national network of public health clinics with sufficient doctors, nurses and Allied Health Professionals, is “necessary” in order to ensure access to quality primary healthcare.

“In July of this year, following the recruitment of 12 Physicians to the Department of Public Health, my ministry highlighted that we had made the posting of new physicians to a number of key Family Islands including San Salvador, Abaco and Exuma, a priority,” Dr. Gomez added.

“The Ministry of Health [also] committed to fully staffing all Family Island clinics with physicians – a commitment I reiterated as part of my contribution to the National Budget Debate. With the deployment of Doctors Adderley, Cho, Darville, Smith and Rivers, we are fulfilling that commitment,” Dr. Gomez said.