The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie and Minister of Health Dr Perry Gomez led high level discussions with medical officials of the University of Miami in Freeport on Friday concerning a possible extension of a medical school in Grand Bahama, where there are plans for a new state-of-the-art medical facility.

The discussions were with Dr Pascal J Goldschmidt, MD, an internationally renowned cardiologist and cardiovascular researcher who is Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the University of Miami Leonard M Miller School of Medicine.

Dr Goldschmidt also serves as Chief Executive Officer of the University of Miami Health System (UHealth), which includes three hospitals and more than a dozen outpatient facilities in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Collier counties, with more than 1,200 physicians and 8,000 staff.

“I am very happy we have had advanced discussions … I have argued that this is the best place to have an extension of the University of Miami medical school,” Mr Christie said. The Prime Minister said that the Minister of Grand Bahama, Dr Michael Darville, has had discussions with about private/public partnerships to actually build the institution.

“He is projecting between $100 million and $150 million, but again if we are going to establish a relationship with the University of Miami we want the University of Miami to have some kind of interest in what we are doing with a view to giving us advice and having benefit of that advice,” Mr Christie stated.

He explained that while government is committed to the push to develop medical tourism it must proceed with due diligence. “There was a time when I was Minister of Health … but where the Bahamas had negative publicity because we were offering last hope, last chance clinics where people would come in with the hope of being cured from cancer and leave in body bags.

“It attracted the newspapers in Florida and what I said to my colleagues when we won the election in 2012 and we saw that applications were coming into The Bahamas that we must not take any step toward offering anything to people abroad without legislative support,” Mr Christie said.

Dr Goldschmidt said he is supportive of the Prime Minister for the future of medicine and future medical intervention in the country. “I find there is a very significant consistency in moving towards greatness and that is what we want to be a part of, and we will see how we can best contribute to that wonderful project,” he said.

The new facility will be a part of the College of The Bahamas, soon to become the University of The Bahamas, and the new hospital in Grand Bahama.