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MONDAY, JUNE 21, 2021
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Playing ‘catch up’ on $200m clinic needs
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
T
HE Bahamas will always be “playing catch up” with public health infrastructure needs that could amount to $200m just to upgrade community clinics, a former Cabinet minister has revealed. Dr Duane Sands, former minister of health, told Tribune Business that heightened expectations especially in Family Islands demanding medical services of a quality that matches Nassau - meant the pressure will continually be on the government to improve the public healthcare system. Acknowledging that human capital, and not just physical infrastructure, requires upgrading, he added that the $975m financing offer made by the P3 Group at the Hurricane Dorian pledging conference in 2019 was an accurate reflection of how much investment the Bahamian
• Ex-minister: Health financing ‘not doing job’ • $975m Dorian pledge ‘not plucked from space’ • NHI debate ‘fraught with political land mines’
DR DUANE SANDS public healthcare system actually requires “if you could have everything you wanted”. Speaking as 50 percent of a $40m Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan is set to be allocated to replacing and/or rebuilding nine Family Island clinics, Dr Sands said The Bahamas had “done as well as we could” in maintaining those facilities given the “incredible” cost even though at
‘Back to drawing board’ over home porting departures By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas must “go back to the drawing board” on the departure experience for Royal Caribbean’s home porting passengers after many were forced to wait two hours or longer to check-in with Bahamasair. Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business yesterday that this was “one glitch” in an otherwise “seamless” inaugural home porting experience that requires rapid review to ensure it does not occur again.
DIONISIO D’AGUILAR He suggested that Bahamasair “probably under-estimated” how many disembarked Royal Caribbean passengers would arrive at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) after their sevenday voyage on Adventure of the Seas ended on Saturday,
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Businesses face fire amid COVID vaccine ‘games’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE director of labour yesterday accused the Opposition of “playing political games” over COVID-19 vaccinations as businesses come under increasing fire for encouraging staff to become inoculated. John Pinder, who is said be be the FNM’s likely Fox Hill candidate, told Tribune Business he had “not heard any of the hierarchy of the opposition” encourage their supporters and the wider
JOHN PINDER Bahamian public to tax the AstraZeneca vaccine even though it was “the only thing we’ve got” to end the pandemic and restore the Bahamian economy.
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least one is currently housed in a condemned building. He conceded that the government’s present mechanism of financing public healthcare via the Public Treasury/taxpayers “is not going to do the job”, and reiterated that user fees for those who have insurance or “the ability to pay” but currently do not will have to be levied at the Princess Margaret Hospital. Describing the debate around healthcare financing as “fraught with political land mines”, especially as National Health Insurance (NHI) continues to roll-out, Dr Sands said The Bahamas will likely have to “bite the bullet” in meeting the demands and expectations of its population. “This is an ever-evolving situation, and when you look at the number of clinics
- just shy of 100 around The Bahamas - with changing codes in terms of what is the standard, it’s incredibly hard to keep up,” Dr Sands said of maintaining multiple facilities scattered across the archipelago. “The expectations that would have sufficed ten years ago, now communities demand more. The expectation is that the high level care provided in The Bahamas happens not only on New Providence and Grand Bahama. What was fine ten years ago is no longer good enough. I think we’re going to be on this road for ever of catch up, catch up, but the goal posts keep moving.” Citing the desire of Family Island mothers to give birth in those locations as one example of increased
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BREA chief: Do ‘admirable thing’ for existing deals By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamas Real Estate Association’s (BREA) president says it will be “the admirable thing to do” for the government to “honour” current VAT rates on high-end deals agreed before the budget’s unveiling. Christine Wallace Whitfield, pictured, told Tribune Business it was “a huge concern” for many realtors that $2m-plus transactions already in process prior to the end-May budget communication could suddenly incur extra tax if they fail to complete before the new fiscal year’s July 1 start. Disclosing that she planned to write to the government on the matter, Mrs Wallace-Whitfield said that suddenly applying a 12 percent VAT rate to the portion of a real estate transaction valued at $2m and above threatens to disrupt such deals by forcing buyers or sellers - and possibly both - to come up with extra monies to cover the additional tax at the last minute. While BREA and its members had no difficulty with the government seeking to increase taxes
on high-end real estate deals, given that the parties involved likely have the ability to pay more, she argued that it was “not fair” to spring such an increase on the sector given that deals often take up to 90 days to close. “That has been a huge increase for the real estate community,” she added of the 12 percent VAT’s imminent July 1 imposition. “I think it’s only fair that the government honour existing sales contracts in the pipeline. They could have said that in 60-90 days it will come into effect, but this came on us suddenly. “I don’t have a problem with what’s happening, but with these people they need to honour their agreements. They have budgeted what they have to pay and shell out at closing already.”
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