Early in his career, he recalled a personal experience that shaped his commitment to improving the accessibility of healthcare to all Bahamians. It is a story sewn deeply into his journey in public life captured in the reality of a 14-year-old girl and an old friend both having renal failure. Early on before our progress in modernizing the healthcare industry of The Bahamas there were daunting realities regarding the inefficiencies of the public health services.
Serving in the capacity as a former minister of health in the country at that time, there were only two dialysis machines to serve the essential health needs of Bahamians. He was challenged with a discomforting discretion of whether a young girl or an elderly male received access to this dialysis machine. At the time, the policy articulated that children were to be given first preference, and this subsequently resulted in his friend passing away.
Just over five months ago, our Parliament passed legislation to pave the way for National Health Insurance for all Bahamians. Our modernization efforts to tackle the urgent challenge of providing healthcare for all Bahamians continue unabated. Prime Minister Perry Christie is introducing an array of initiatives, many of them are resulting in the transformation of our healthcare system, enabling the provision of modern, affordable and accessible healthcare for our people and the future of our nation.
One of the greatest challenges we have had in The Bahamas is the unbelievably high cost of healthcare. Our healthcare system simply cannot be sustained on its present path. There are over 200,000 Bahamians who cannot afford health insurance; nor do they have a range of health services available to them.
The Christie administration introduced National Health Insurance Bahamas to address the twin issues of cost and accessibility so that no Bahamian can ever be denied healthcare. The next phase of NHI Bahamas will be enrollment, the selection of your primary healthcare doctor, followed by the commencement of primary healthcare coverage. With NHI Bahamas, primary healthcare coverage will be free of charge to all Bahamians at private and public facilities. In this regard, they will no longer have to postpone seeking necessary healthcare. Delays in access to primary healthcare services often mean many persons will most likely go on to suffer from illnesses that could have been prevented.
To adequately serve the needs of Bahamians and to transform our healthcare system requires an investment. Christie will invest almost $200 million in hospital expansion and upgrades. The renovations to the Accident and Emergency Department and Maternity Ward at PMH, coupled with renovations at the Rand Memorial Hospital are very real examples of our commitment to giving the Bahamian people the modern healthcare system that they deserve.
The government is already going ahead with the $1.3 million renovation to the clinic at West End, Grand Bahama. That clinic, when completed, will for the first time in its history offer 24-hour ambulance services to the residents of West Grand Bahama. Grand Bahama is also poised to become the benefactor of the new modern state-of-the-art Freeport Community Clinic. Ground will be broken at the 50-acre Greenfield site, as early as November this year.
The new 61-,000- square-foot facility, which boasts general practice and family medicine clinics; maternal and child health clinics; and mental health, adolescent and school health services, will be the first community clinic in the nation's second city.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the new state-of-the-art Child and Adolescent Robert Smith Special Education Complex at Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre. The complex, which has increased bed capacity and extended services to outpatient care, is tangible proof of the Christie government's commitment to goal number five of the 2010-2020 National Health Services Strategic Plan.
As part of our systematic approach to the transformation of healthcare, the government has also undertaken the modernization of the country's medical record keeping system with the purchase of the universal iHIMS or Integrated Health Information Management System, which will result in public hospitals and clinics across the country moving from paper files to an electronic medical record system.
This system iHIMS procured through the Public Hospitals Authority from global market leader Allscripts and its strategic partner Infor Lawson, is set to go live in October 2017. It is an efficient, transformative and highly confidential option to medical records keeping, and will result in the entire public healthcare network, which includes hospitals and community clinics across the country, from Grand Bahama in the north to Inagua in the south, to have a one patient, one record system.
What this translates into is that your medical record will follow you wherever you go and, more importantly, only those healthcare providers who have the right to see your information will be given secure access to your medical record.
The purchase of some $7.5 million state-of-the-art imaging and radiology equipment for Princess Margaret Hospital and Rand Memorial Hospital by the government in February of this year will place the services at these facilities among the most advanced in the Caribbean, and will result in the full digitization of both PMH and the RAND.
Transforming healthcare in The Bahamas has also meant finding ways to allow access to care beyond traditional guidelines. It is against this backdrop that the government has extended the hours of operation in community clinics in order to ease the pressure on our hospitals. These infrastructural upgrades will complement the ongoing projects throughout the Family Islands.
The government will continue to ensure that trained health professionals are deployed throughout all the main islands of our country. The deployment of trained health professionals will continue to be done to meet the needs of our people. These health professionals are being equipped to carry out their mission to provide healthcare and accessibility to that care system.
Many of us have had or heard of the experiences of family and friends who suffered severe health challenges, made worse because they could not afford the care they needed. Far too many children have been deprived of precious memories of grandparents whom they loved because their grandparents could not afford the healthcare that they needed.
There should be no need for healthcare to be out of the reach of any Bahamian. History will show that the people of The Bahamas will be better off because of the courage and commitment of Christie to create a modern, affordable and accessible healthcare system. There are those detractors who will oppose the progress towards modernization of our healthcare system no matter what. But there is a clear reassurance that no opposition will stop the Christie administration's progress toward introducing policies and initiatives that change the livelihoods of our citizens for the better, and for the good.
And so, I wish to bring comfort all Bahamians: Christie has heard your stories, and is answering your call for the provision and accessibility to a transformed and modern healthcare system. The National Health Insurance Bahamas plan will bring an end to the current system, which has overwhelmed our people financially for so long. Our seniors, our children and those among us who are struggling to make ends meet will feel the most benefit. We are entering a new phase in our country's history, one that will be marked by modern, affordable, accessible, universal healthcare for everyone.
Christie continues his cause as a government for the people of The Bahamas. Finally, we strengthen our history. Finally, we are making The Bahamas a little more socially and economically equal. Finally, we tackle the urgent challenges relating to healthcare in our country.

o Latrae Rahming is the press secretary in the Office of The Prime Minister.

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