Doctors Hospital (DHHS) on Thursday launched a healthcare initiative on Grand Bahama which gives officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) access to its medical services with no copay or at a discounted rate.
The offering falls under Doctors Hospital's Loyalty Advantage Membership Programme (LAMP), which is a medical services discount membership initiative.
DHHS President and CEO Dr. Charles Diggiss presented Assistant Commissioner of Police Bernard Bonamy Jr. and his senior executives with the program ID cards for officers on the island.
"We call it our 'Uniformed Branches Healthcare Service Initiative', but it involves our Loyalty Advantage Membership Programme. So, it's truly a part of the wonderful list of offerings that drops down from LAMP," Diggiss said.
"When we thought about whom we will partner with in this journey, this vision of spreading our healthcare offerings throughout the country, we thought first of the uniformed branches."
He said members of the uniformed branches — customs, immigration, defense force, police and the corrections services — – are often taken for granted.
"These individuals sacrifice in service to this country and we believe since it's really difficult to pay them for what they do for The Bahamas, it becomes important for us as a private sector partner to provide our offerings to them and make sure those offerings do not have an impediment like the ability to pay," Diggiss said.
While the other uniformed branches are not a part of the program yet, he assured that they will be included and confirmed that the healthcare coverage also includes family members of officers.
"We looked at the third-party insurance and the ability for us to offer discounted prices through LAMP. As a result, we are able to provide services for which there is not a financial barrier, especially for their families," Diggiss said.
"The thing that matters for someone who is driving around keeping our streets safe at 2 a.m. is their family's safety.
"So, in the event something was to happen with somebody at home, they (officers) know they have a partner in the private sector who would step up and provide the necessary care."
LAMP membership plans vary from 75 cents to $1.50 per day and include fee waivers for insured patients, discounts on outpatient and inpatient services, access to free imaging services and free access to nutritional consultations.
Doctors Hospital Assistant Vice President of MIS, Security and Communications Patrick Clarke, who is a former police officer, was instrumental in the programs launch.
"Our goal was to find a way where the officers and their family members when presenting themselves for medical assistance, did not have to come up with cash out of pocket," Clarke said.
"We are working with the insurance companies, so that services for them will be expedited. Essentially, it is just to make sure that the officers, in the time of need, ailment or emergencies, can come to any of our facilities throughout the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to be seen and served in a timely manner."
Clarke said the initiative is for police officers throughout the country, "but we are starting in Grand Bahama".
Bonamy thanked Diggiss saying it will be a relief for the men and women who serve on the front line "particularly, as it relates to our families and getting medical care in a timely fashion".
"This program and its assistance means a lot," he said.
New facility
Diggiss and a delegation from New Providence also got a first-hand progress report on the construction of the new $25 million Rockwell Hospital in downtown Freeport on Thursday.
The three-story building on the Mall Drive, formerly First Commercial Centre, which used to house FirstCaribbean International Bank, Okanyos Stem Cell center and several corporate offices, is now being redeveloped as what will be the DHHS main facility serving the northern Bahamas.
Diggiss noted that progress may seem slow, but said, "It is construction; we accept the realities that challenge the people involved in the project.
"We are happy that they are moving along at the pace they are moving.
"Phase I is scheduled to open by 2025.
"That will have all of the traditional acute care, the usual things that you anticipate in a hospital," he said.
"Phase II, which we are especially looking forward to, we are talking about extending these services now into increased capability, in areas like critical care, cancer care, extending chronic kidney disease into dialysis and transport programs.
"We want to make sure that Bahamians when they seek advance level of specialty care can access it at this facility."
Speaking to employment opportunities when the project is completed, Diggiss said, "There is a lot going on in a space like this and it requires a lot of people who know what they are doing.
"You have all of the job opportunities in the acute care space and in every imaginable support and allied type services in the traditional areas like pharmacy, lab, imaging, everything related to patient care and support of a facility."
He continued, "So, it is going to be an amazing list of opportunities, especially for Grand Bahamians or persons wanting to relocate from Nassau."
Doctors Hospital CFO Dennis Deveaux said, "We are very excited about what the product will look like at its very end, which will be a 25-bed tertiary healthcare facility with more than 50,000 square feet of medical state-of-the-art facility.
"This is an important project for Doctors Hospital. We anticipate by the time we're done that we would have invested roughly $30 million in the local economy."
Doctors Hospital investments include the Kavala Medical Centre in Eight Mile Rock, a 28-unit Sea Breeze apartment complex for staff accommodations, the 17-acre site of the former Shalimar Hotel and the Freeport Medical Centre on West Atlantic Drive which will be open before the end of the month.
Deveaux said getting the clinic open soon will ease concerns of Grand Bahamians about the state of healthcare facilities on the island.
"The reason why that's important is because we think people in Grand Bahama certainly are seeking a sense of urgency around healthcare delivery," he said.
"That facility will be a kind of buffer to the demands between now and when the hospital opens."
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