The Bahamas Ailing Healthcare System

The Failing Healthcare System of The Bahamas

Dr. Duane Sands, Chairman of the Free National Movement:  "Silencing Truth in Healthcare"

Last week, I was deeply disturbed to learn that Nurse Pearl Williams, a respected healthcare professional with more than four decades of service at Princess Margaret Hospital, was suspended for doing what too many are afraid to do: speak the truth.

After 44 years of caring for Bahamians, Nurse Williams went public with an emotional plea to Prime Minister Philip Davis, describing the dire state of our nation's main public hospital: leaky roofs, rodent infestations, medical supply shortages, and exhausted staff stretched far beyond their limits.  Her message was not one of politics but of pain; the pain of seeing the system she has served her entire life collapsing around her.

Rather than confront the truth, the Public Hospitals Authority chose to suspend Nurse Williams.

But the problems Nurse Williams spoke of did not appear overnight.  They are the result of years of neglect under this PLP administration, a government that came to office promising to fix healthcare but has failed to deliver.

While facilities across the country crumble, the Davis Administration has chosen to borrow more than $200 million from the Chinese to build a new hospital instead of repairing and upgrading the ones we already have.  Theychase ribbon-cuttings and photo opportunities while nurses work double shifts, supplies run short, and patients suffer in silence.

The Free National Movement has repeatedly warned that our healthcare system is decaying from the inside.  We have called for, and continue to demand, a comprehensive national audit of all public hospitals, a timeline for critical infrastructure repairs, better pay and training for nurses, and a real plan to upgrade facilities from Grand Bahama to Inagua.  These are not partisan demands; they are the bare minimum that a responsible government owes to its people.

The FNM believes that those who care for our citizens deserve respect, not retribution. Nurse Williams spoke not just for herself, but for countless others: nurses, doctors, and hospital staff who are tired of broken promises, unsafe conditions, and a government more interested in managing headlines than solving problems.

We stand firmly with her, and with every Bahamian demanding dignity, accountability, and action in healthcare.  The truth is this: our healthcare system is failing, our workers are crying out, and our people deserve better.

It is time to stop punishing those who speak up and start fixing what's broken.  The Free National Movement will continue to fight for a healthcare system worthy of the Bahamian people, one that values its Workers, protects its patients, and delivers care with competence and compassion.

FREE NATIONAL MOVEMENT 144 MACKEY STREET, P.O. BOX N-10713 | NASSAU, N.P, THE BAHAMAS

(242) 393-7853

November 9, 2025

Value Added Tax (VAT) and Healthcare Cost in The Bahamas

Warning on VAT healthcare implications

GEOFFREY BROWN
Guardian Business Reporter
geoffrey@nasguard.com

Value-Added Tax (VAT) Private Sector Education Task Force Co-chair Jasmine Davis said yesterday that vatable healthcare will have “huge socioeconomic implications” for the country’s workforce if not readdressed by the government.

Davis told Guardian Business that the task force continues to push physicians and healthcare facilities to register for VAT to avoid incurring penalties, but stressed that the medical community will continue to lobby for exempt status simultaneously.

“Medical services as described in the act are essential services, and it has huge socioeconomic implications. What we don’t want to see is persons opting out of getting healthcare,” said Davis.

She pointed out that the tax on healthcare would not only affect lower-income households, and anticipated that businesses would shift the additional 7.5 percent of healthcare costs onto employees.

“What would result is that we would have a sicker populace, which means that people will not be working, which means that dollars will not be moving through the economy, which means that the amount of money that is expected to be derived through taxation will not happen,” she said.

Davis could not provide a figure for the number of healthcare professionals registered for the tax to date. However, she claimed that the sector is making good progress in registering.

Davis also reasserted that healthcare and education are benefactors of the VAT system in other jurisdictions that have implemented the tax.

“Funds from taxation are normally earmarked for healthcare and not the reverse, where healthcare is taxed to reduce the deficit,” said Davis.

The Ministry of Finance recently clarified that national exams and other education services will be exempt from VAT. Given these exemptions, Davis argued that healthcare was planned to be exempt from VAT up until the last revision of the tax’s legislation tabled in July.

November 28, 2014

thenassauguardian