The Free National Movement is fully committed to the internationally accepted dictum that health care is a fundamental right. We believe, therefore, that primary health care must be accessible to residents on every inhabited Bahamian island. Further, we subscribe to the view - and therefore we are ensuring - that quality health care must be universal in its application.
Statistics show that the four leading causes of death among Bahamian adults are cardiovascular diseases, cancer, trauma and AIDS.
Cardiovascular diseases which include heart attack, heart failure, stroke and kidney failure, have as their major causes hypertension and diabetes mellitus. A major health education programme that emphasizes the need for proper diet, regular exercise, cessation of smoking, proper use of medication and careful monitoring, by health care professionals, will be implemented and is expected to result in a reduction in deaths from these causes.
The programme for early detection of common
cancers, including pap smears, breast examination and mammograms in females and postate examination in males, will be expanded through the community clinics.
The role of the Cancer Society of The Bahamas, in this regard, has been significant and will be encouraged through the provision of resources, both physical and financial.
In the case of trauma which has, in recent years, become a major public health problem, a national programme for the prevention of injury from violent crime and accidents will be developed in conjunction with law enforcement and civic and religious organizations.
The National Aids Programme of The Bahamas is held out by the World Health Organization as a model for both developing and developed countries. Continued support of this programme will continue to be a priority of the Government.
The Free National Movement Government’s objective is to provide every community in The Bahamas easy access to both preventative and curative care by establishing and staffing necessary facilities in or near all major communities.
Having carried out extensive refurbishment works at the principal health and medical care facilities in the country, the Princess Margaret Hospital and the Rand Memorial Hospital;
Having constructed, through the National Insurance Board, new health clinics in Coopers Town, Abaco, and Simms, Long Island;
Having set in train the extension of community health facilities through the construction of new health clinics in Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama; Bimini, Spanish Wells, Harbour Island, and in Southern New Providence;
Having removed all fees and charges associated with the care of pregnant women and infants;
Having achieved one of the highest levels of infant and children immunisation ratios in the world;
Having conducted research at the Princess Margaret Hospital in conjunction with the Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital and the University of Toronto on the treatment of HIV infected pregnant women; your FNM Government, in addition to completing commitments contained in Manifesto ‘92, in its second term will:
Further improve ante-natal care and post-natal care at all Government Health Care Facilities.
Cause to be reduced, further, infant mortality rates to under 20 per thousand live births.
|
Embark upon an extensive educational programme to make mothers and expectant mothers more aware of the importance of early pre-natal care, of post-natal care and of family planning.
Continue to expand the programme of childhood immunisation to include vaccines against hepatitis and hemophilius influenza.
Continue to support research in, and treatment of, HIV infected pregnant women.
Provide HIV infected pregnant women with the drugs necessary to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus to their unborn children.
Complete the salaries review and upgrading exercise to achieve a favourable comparison of salaries of doctors and nurses with other professionals in the public service.
Provide extra compensation for doctors and nurses, medical technologists, and other allied health care workers whose duties expose them to unusual risk.
Facilitate the rehiring of retired nurses to meet any shortfall in the availability of trained nurses in active service in order to reduce the need to recruit overseas nursing professionals.
Emphasise and expand the Nursing Cadet programme to ensure a cadre of welleducated and motivated candidates for direct entry into the Nursing Programmes at the College of The Bahamas.
Complete the essential task of improving and expanding services available at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
Transform the Princess Margaret Hospital into a state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic in-patient facility.
Construct, equip and staff a new wing of the Princess Margaret Hospital, dedicated entirely to maternal and child care. Such a wing will have the most modern labour and delivery suites, post-natal wards, Special Care Baby Units, Pediatric Wards and appropriate doctor, nurse and other staff facilities. All pregnant women and all babies born in The Bahamas will have equal access to quality medical care, favourably impacting on both maternal and infant mortality.
Construct, equip and staff a new primary health care facility to provide basic primary health care to residents in the immediate vicinity of the Princess Margaret Hospital.
Expand and upgrade the Emergency Medicine Department providing separate treatment areas for victims of accidents and trauma, creating a separate pediatric emergency section.
Construct, equip and staff a new critical care block to house new operating theatres, recovery rooms and intensive care units for medical, surgical and pediatric care.
Acquire all necessary state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment for the timely delivery of medical services to all patients at the Princess Margaret Hospital and the Rand Memorial Hospital.
Put in train developments to permit kidney transplant services and, by the turn of the century, also, open heart surgery at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
Accommodate at the Princess Margaret Hospital, beginning in 1997, 4th and 5th year medical students studying at the University of the West Indies and, shortly thereafter, begin a post-graduate training programme in family medicine, thus making our major public hospital, apart from being a referral centre, a first class facility for the teaching of medical students and the training of young doctors in family medicine. |