Bahamas Patient Advocacy

No Accountability for Healthcare Providers in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

The debate over medical lawsuits in the United States contrasts dramatically with the situation in the Bahamas.

American doctors face soaring costs for malpractice insurance and want to cap huge legal claims. The Bush administration accuses lawyers of filing frivolous suits that make treatment more costly while forcing doctors to curtail vital care.

This threat of potentially bankrupting litigation causes American doctors to engage in defensive medicine, analysts say, which wastes billions of dollars a year by directing money to unnecessary drugs and tests.

But in the Bahamas, the position is almost exactly the reverse. Patients have little recourse in cases of medical negligence; regulatory supervision is almost nonexistent; and doctors are free to ignore complaints about the care they provide.

Quick Tips—When Getting Medical Tests

The best way to stay healthy is to be an active member of your own health care team. it is important to find and use information and play a part in all of the decisions made about your care.

The following information will help you when making decisions about medical tests:

Doctors order tests to help diagnose medical problems. Perhaps you do not know why you need a particular test or you don't understand how it will help you. Here are some questions to ask:

Is Bahamian Healthcare Regulated?

by Leandra Esfakis

The Ministry of Health is working on a bold new programme of providing universal access to health care, but what is it doing to regulate health care presently?

The issue was recently brought into focus by an official complaint to the Hospital and Health Care Facilities Board about the death of a patient in a local hospital in 2002. The complaint alleges serious institutional failings in that hospital caused or contributed to fatal injuries and death.

The Board is supposed to act in the public interest. Regulations require the Board to make an investigation where there is a complaint about the “management, diagnosis or treatment” of a patient. However, last year the Board refused to accept it’s responsibility and declined to order any investigation.

How can a regulatory body, year after year, re-license medical facilities, apparently in a pro-forma fashion, without making any investigation when there are serious allegations of institutional deficiencies resulting in death?