The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recently donated a Toyota Sienna to the Public Hospital Authority (PHA) to support ongoing patient transport solutions for a strained Health sector.

The 2014-vehicle donation will aid ongoing needs for patients in PHA’s care to be transported to outsourced services on the island, including Radiation Therapy, the Heart Institute and Doctor’s Hospital campus. It will also facilitate pick-up and drop-off services for staff members working late and midnight shifts.

“At the IDB, we are committed to assisting the government in strengthening its capacity to better serve the people of The Bahamas,” said Chief Operating Officer Maria Eugenia-Roca. “This vehicle will provide more opportunities for the PHA to respond more rapidly to the community needs of the people that require medical attention. We are pleased to assist in this capacity and we look forward to building on the foundation that has been laid with this partnership.”

The donation comes on the heels of a recent partnership between the IDB and the Government of The Bahamas to help reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by COVID-19 and to lessen its impact on public health. A $20 million loan programme was recently signed to strengthen the Ministry of Health’s response management, improve case detection and monitoring, support the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines and the vaccination plan, assist the actions to break the illness's transmission chain and improve service delivery capacity.

The programme will be executed in two years and will benefit the Bahamian population through supporting the actions to mitigate the Covid-19 spread, facilitating vaccine uptake, and increasing access to essential care.