The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Doctors Hospital yesterday said it is using new regional partnerships, an in-house air ambulance and expanding clinical relationships to position itself as a healthcare provider not only for The Bahamas but, eventually, for the wider Caribbean.

Dennis Deveaux, the BISX-listed healthcare provider’s chief executive, said the strategy took a significant step forward this week when Doctors Hospital completed its first medical evacuation from the Turks and Caicos Islands, transporting a critically ill patient to New Providence for treatment.

"We are proud to report that just yesterday night, we received our first medical evacuation from the Turks and Caicos Islands, bringing a very ill senior citizen from that community into The Bahamas to receive life-saving care,” he said.

The strategic expansion comes as private healthcare providers increasingly compete for complex procedures, medical tourism and cross-border referrals in the Caribbean, where many smaller island nations rely on overseas treatment for specialised care.

For Mr Deveaux, however, the evacuation represented more than a single patient transfer. "We share a common history, we share a common DNA, and we think that the services that Doctors Hospital provides really need to be increasingly more accessible, not only to Bahamians, but to our broader diaspora,” he added.

To support that vision, Doctors Hospital has established its own medical air ambulance service, allowing it to retrieve patients throughout The Bahamas and from neighbouring jurisdictions.

"We actually stood up a Doctors Hospital in-house medical air ambulance, and we physically, with our own contracted plane and our contracted team of healthcare providers, went and picked the patient up, brought the patient back to New Providence and admitted the patient to hospital very seamlessly,” Mr Deveaux said.

He said the service is expected to become increasingly important as Doctors Hospital expands its footprint beyond New Providence, including the opening of its Grand Bahama hospital.

"A patient in Abaco being picked up might go to Grand Bahama for care. Certainly, a patient in Exuma might come to New Providence. But we now have the capability through medical air evacuation to go and get our patients wherever they are in The Bahamas, outside of The Bahamas, including into the US,” the Doctors Hospital chief said.

Beyond transporting patients, Mr Deveaux said Doctors Hospital is deepening its relationship with the Turks and Caicos Islands through several initiatives. "Our relationship with TCI has a couple of dimensions. The first one is receiving patients from their travel abroad programme. The second one is helping them in-country stand up the same kind of capacity that we have stood up, particularly in what they refer to as the polyclinic space,” he added.

Mr Deveaux said Doctors Hospital also stands ready to assist following recent changes in the management of the Turks and Caicos Islands' public hospital system.

"We are obviously lending our support with the recent end to their relationship with InterHealth Canada for their flagship facility, and we stand ready to support as we are called upon by TCI,” he explained.

Doctors Hospital is also continuing to strengthen ties with Health City Cayman, where the two organisations are exploring opportunities to work together.

"Our relationship with Health City in the Cayman Islands continues to progress well. They have a very small stake in Doctors Hospital, less than 5 percent, and we continue to explore areas of collaboration, particularly in procurement with respect to pharmaceutical drugs,” Mr Deveaux said.

While regional opportunities are growing, Mr Deveaux stressed that Doctors Hospital's immediate priority remains completing projects already underway in The Bahamas, including its Grand Bahama hospital and the modernisation of its Nassau campus.

"We firstly need to ensure that we serve the people of The Bahamas and address the gaps that we recognise are within our own delivery model,” he explained. Even so, he acknowledged the hospital has already begun receiving interest from elsewhere in the region.

"Beyond the Turks and Caicos Islands, we have been invited to look at other markets, but we're not going to get ahead of ourselves. We've got to open our hospital in Grand Bahama, do that well, and improve the facility here in Nassau,” Mr Deveaux said.

Looking further ahead, he said the company sees regional healthcare as part of its longer-term strategy.

"Those conversations will likely move into our 2030 outlook as we start to think about the Caribbean, the diaspora of people in the Caribbean with a common set of healthcare problems, and how we could start to think about Doctors Hospital in a pan-Caribbean way,” Mr Deveaux added.