Attracting Medical Tourism Health Minister supports the idea

By GENEA NOEL

Freeport News Reporter

genea@nasguard.com

The Grand Bahama Port Authority's (GBPA) bid to attract medical tourism to the island will be supported by the government, said Minister of Health Hubert Minnis.

In an interview with The Freeport News recently Minnis said that once the plan is properly organized and there are guidelines in place, the Ministries of Health and Tourism would work together to ensure its success.

"This would be an excellent form of revenue for The Bahamas so we are working aggressively and progressively trying to find new tourist markets."

At last report the GBPA had identified two areas –cardiovascular medicine and orthopaedic medicine – for specialized hospitals for Grand Bahama and a developer investor kit had targeted the top 10 or 15 hospitals in the United States for this island.

Minnis said the island should no longer rely solely on cruise ships for the basic tourist product and is perfectly suited for medical tourism.

"We think that the whole idea of medical tourism is an excellent one. There would be opportunities for great facilities to compliment the ones that currently exist," Minnis said.

"It would also provide an excellent boost for Grand Bahama to help with its unemployment rates. We are very much pro medical tourism."

President of the GBPA, Ian Rolle, introduced the idea of Medical Tourism last year as a means of stimulating the island's sluggish economy.

He said the intention would be to attract only certain types of medical procedures and to start off with those with a relatively low risk to avoid any accidents that could potentially ruin the business.

Rolle said insurance companies would be in support of the idea of persons travelling outside of the United States for certain procedures because they would be cheaper than they would be in the U.S.

GBPA chairman, Hannes Babak, back in October noted that to make this venture strive, Grand Bahama would have to be the best in the field.

" We have to be a leader and not a follower. We want to lead medical tourism and that will help local practitioners and give them a great facility in terms of a hospital."

When the project fully comes on stream, Babak said that it has to be analyzed, bought right and sold correctly, the same as what was done for Ross University.

"When I first talked about Ross, people were skeptical and did not think it would work, but now we see that it is here," he said at the time.

"People do not choose when they need medical treatment. They need it in good times and in bad, so it will be recession proof."

Chairman Babak is convinced that in order to make things economically stable, the economy has to be diversified as almost 50 percent of jobs are created by the standard tourism industry.

"We have to bring that number down and bring other numbers in other sectors up, he said. "We in Freeport have a much lower percentage in one sector and that is why we are the industrial capital of the Bahamas."

However, he said that it is not enough and "we need to make the industrial capital much larger to become the biggest industry in The Bahamas. One of those industries for the future is medical tourism.

"We have to get into areas that are recession proof and areas that might even strive better during an economic downturn and we decided to look at medical tourism."

The GBPA chairman had talked of securing a deal for a $100 million 100-room hospital. It is now unclear if that plan is still on the drawing board as he has not been operating at the GBPA since his work permit expired on December 31st.

When The Freeport News contacted Babak at his residence yesterday, he said that he was unable to give comment on any of the GBPA's business at this time because of the condition of his work permit.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Minnis said that plans are underway to develop the Accident and Emergency Department and the Operating Theatre at the Rand Memorial Hospital to improve health care and reduce airlift to the capital.

The government, he said, has rented a particular location away from the hospital to house the department temporarily while renovations continue.

Mr. Minnis, said that there will also be renovations to the paediatric ward and improvements in gerontology, mental health care, oral health, district nursing services, management of HIV/AIDS and public health programs.

© 2009 The Freeport News