Bahamas Patient Advocacy

Complaints Against Healthcare Providers

by Leandra Esfakis

The Hospital and Health Care Facilities Board was established to address complaints of patients in private health care facilities ( hospitals and clinics)  a decade ago. But it has yet to investigate any complaint.

In fact, few people seem to know of the Board’s existence or purpose. However, the Board received in 2004 a complaint of a fatality in one of the private health care facilities that it licenses, but its initial response was that it did not know how to investigate a complaint, and would have to take legal advice.

The response from the Attorney General’s office was also somewhat disturbing: The AG’s staff advised that they did not know how to advise the Board, neither did they understand the purpose of an investigation.

The Esfakis Inquest and What it Means for Bahamian Healthcare

by Leandra Esfakis

•The author is the deceased's sister, and an attorney. Their father was the late Dr Andrew Esfakis.

Last month the Coroner’s Court delivered a verdict in the April, 2002 death of Christopher Esfakis, age 42, of “Death by natural causes, with a substantial and significant contribution made by neglect.”

Christopher Esfakis’ death was “natural”, in the ordinary meaning of that word, the same way that every death is natural: his heart stopped beating. The inquest determined, however, that “neglect” contributed significantly to that death.

According to the evidence, Christopher Esfakis walked into Doctors Hospital about 1 am on Saturday April 20, 2002. He was admitted for treatment for mostly first and second degree burns to 25 per cent of his body. He died the following Monday at 7 pm.

by Leandra Esfakis

•The author is the deceased's sister, and an attorney. Their father was the late Dr Andrew Esfakis.

Last month the Coroner’s Court delivered a verdict in the April, 2002 death of Christopher Esfakis, age 42, of “Death by natural causes, with a substantial and significant contribution made by neglect.”

Christopher Esfakis’ death was “natural”, in the ordinary meaning of that word, the same way that every death is natural: his heart stopped beating. The inquest determined, however, that “neglect” contributed significantly to that death.

According to the evidence, Christopher Esfakis walked into Doctors Hospital about 1 am on Saturday April 20, 2002. He was admitted for treatment for mostly first and second degree burns to 25 per cent of his body. He died the following Monday at 7 pm.

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.

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?