Accountability in Bahamian Healthcare

Parliament created the Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities Board in 1998 to license private hospitals and clinics. One of its chief responsibilities is to investigate complaints from the public, but it has no record of ever doing so.

Specifically, a formal complaint regarding the death of a patient at Doctors Hospital in 2002 has been wilfully ignored by the Board under three successive ministers of health.

According to the Act, the object of the Board is to ensure the delivery of quality healthcare to the Bahamian public. In fulfillment of this obligation the board has a duty to investigate fatalities at the hospitals and clinics which it licenses.

Despite this obligation the Board has claimed over the past four years that it does not have the means to conduct an investigation and the chairman of the Board, Dr Kirk Culmer, is on record as stating that the legal requirement for official notification of hospital deaths was "antiquated and unnecessary". He insists that regulatory authorities do not need to know how many people die in a healthcare facility.

Not only has the Hospitals Board never investigated any complaint - and now explicitly refuses to do so, even in the face of ministerial directives - it also wants that power revoked. In other words, it wants private clinics to be totally deregulated.

This petition calls on you - our elected leaders - to ensure accountability under the law for citizens accessing the healthcare sector.

It is a fundamental principal that every human being has a right to life. We urge you to ensure that healthcare regulations are enforced to improve patient survival rates. The Board's legal and professional obligations must be carried out so that the right to life of Bahamian citizens can be protected.

Alternatively, we advocate the establishment of a national Healthcare Commission with the power to investigate complaints from the private or public healthcare sectors, and to implement measures to address failings in the delivery of healthcare.

For the sake of independence, impartiality and the public interest, we also advocate that a member of the proposed Healthcare Commission be appointed from an internationally recognized medical accreditation organization.