The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Doctors Hospital’s tie-up with the Cleveland Clinic “will go miles to becoming a magnet” for The Bahamas to attract high net worth investors concerned about healthcare, its president said yesterday.

Dr Charles Diggiss, pictured, who is also the BISX-listed healthcare provider’s largest shareholder, told the Grand Bahama Business Outlook that “one of the more significant things” in its alliance with the $11bn global conglomerate is the ability to “reassure” persons wanting access to high quality medical care should they relocate to this nation.

Suggesting that the partnership will “create a magnet effect” for foreign direct investment (FDI) by wealthy foreigners, who are seeking “assurances about the quality, safety and reliability of [medical] services”, Dr Diggiss added: “This is really key for those who have considerable means, those who bring a lot of money into the country, to invest it in becoming part of the permanent resident community.

“There’s no doubt this will provide assurance about the quality, reliability and safety of healthcare. This will go miles to becoming a magnet for persons coming in from the global space.”

Dr Diggiss told Tribune Business earlier this year that it planned to develop a Grand Bahama care facility “comparable to our New Providence” hospital by 2022 as part of its deepening partnership with the Cleveland Clinic.

He added that six months of planning work had already been performed on what could become the “flagship” facility for their alliance, and said: “It will be at least comparable to what Doctors Hospital in New Providence is, but we’re looking at an ability to expand it and consideration given, due to our relationship with the Cleveland Clinic, whether that becomes the flagship Doctors Hospital/Cleveland Clinic facility in Grand Bahama.”

Many observers believe the tie-up between the two medical providers could finally provide the true springboard for The Bahamas to launch into medical tourism, drawing on the strength of Cleveland Clinic’s brand, integrity and reputation for providing quality medical care worldwide.

It also, as alluded to by Dr Diggiss, could pave the way - via the proposed Grand Bahama hospital - pave the way for The Bahamas to enter another market that has been much talked about before, namely providing an offshore warm weather retirement destination for wealthy retirees complete with all the medical care access they may require.

Dr Diggiss also unveiled plans for Doctors Hospital to expand into the wider Caribbean by 2025, but yesterday said neither itself nor Cleveland Clinic could “storm trooper” through the region and expect its growth strategy to work.

While acknowledging that many Bahamian companies will seek to broaden their reach into the Caribbean as they search for growth, he added: “It’s not simply rolling into Grand Bahama and setting up shop. Doctors Hospital has learned that the painful way in our history.”

Arguing that companies needed to understand the needs and concerns of communities they are expanding into first, Dr Diggiss added: “What is ‘best in the region’ does not mean storm troopering throughout the region.

“Cleveland Clinic tried that and was treated in a similar manner. The benefits to Cleveland Clinic of having a partner like Doctors Hospital is a prudent one and makes it more acceptable to friends in the Caribbean.”

Dr Diggiss said the COVID-19 pandemic had caused Doctors Hospital’s normal patient revenue volumes to fall by between 40-60 percent as its facilities were taken up by treating COVID-19 patients. The healthcare provider has also performed some 14,000 PCR and rapid antigen tests to-date.

Disclosing that Doctors Hospital had been unable to offer COVID-19 PCR tests during the first three months of the pandemic, he added that alliances with the likes of the Cleveland Clinic will help to address such deficiencies in future by providing better access to external resources.

“The intention is to create a disproportionate value in that the result is simply much bigger than adding the sum of the two parts,” he added of the two companies’ partnership.