Acting President of the Bahamas Doctors Union (BDU) Dr. Macumba Millar said yesterday National Health Insurance (NHI) "could be great if done right" despite skepticism of the government proposed scheme by other physicians, specifically consultant-level physicians.
Millar, who said he is speaking solely in his capacity as a family medicine specialist and not as the acting president of the union, said growing pains are expected in the implementation of NHI.
While he is still concerned about a number of things, Millar told The Nassau Guardian, "If it is done right, it can be a great thing.
"I'm just still not sure about it."
Despite several discussions with the NHI Secretariat, the union has not produced its own position yet.
However, Millar said some doctors in the union (which consists mostly of lower level doctors, general practitioners and non-consultant physicians), "have a positive view of NHI" as "anything involving the improvement of healthcare is something we are interested in".
Last week, Medical Association of The Bahamas (MAB) President Dr. Sy Pierre said the nation's best doctors are not signing up for NHI.
During an interview with The Tribune, Pierre said, "I don't have any official numbers, but my feeling is that the top-level consultants are not signing up.
"The guys who are signing up are the general practitioners.
"They're the ones who are out in the community, but don't have specialist training. They are general practitioners. They are a dying breed, but there are a number of them.
"These guys are the ones signing up.
"The lower tier physicians will take this; it will be an economic boon for them. But the primary care specialists, the experts, they're telling me they're not signing up because they can't run a practice on what the NHI primary care phase is paying."
Millar said the MAB president is speaking for doctors who cater to patients who are "blessed financially".
He added: "It's a difficult balance between economics and altruism when it comes to medicine.
"On the one hand, when we see a specialist in The Bahamas they have basically given a decade of their life to the profession.
"So [during] that time, they could've been having families, spending time with parents or having friends, and so there's a lot of sacrifice involved, not just education-wise, but when you come out, some days people are in the hospital for 36 hours straight.
"Now economics cannot fully re-liberate you for the amount of time and sacrifice it takes to become a doctor.
"On the other end, just like everyone else, we have to pay bills, we like to send our children to nice schools.
"And understand, I represent the people that don't [have] millionaire houses, that don't own businesses, that don't have a lot of financial resources, but in my position I'm still paying student loans, and I graduated seven years ago.
"We are the ones who are financially strapped. This could be good for us.
"So I can understand his point of view, but I don't necessarily fully agree with it."
Millar said there are still some things on a medical level that need to be worked out.
"It is not just about the finances or how much we will be paid," he said.
"It is still too vague.
"I am concerned about the standard of care that we will have."
He said, "We need to know what amount of times you can see patients.
"We need more structure about what happens between the physician and patient."
On January 31, the government announced the launch of NHI's primary care physician registration.
Prime Minister Perry Christie has said the primary care phase of NHI will begin next month.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian