Desperate times call for desperate measures!
Despite the billions of dollars of income in the past few years, we have very little completed infrastructure to show for it, except for a few fat cats at the expense of the rest of us. The impending opening of the new hospital and introduction of the National Health Insurance scheme are looming financial disasters.
So, in case you hadn’t noticed, our government and its agencies have now resorted to begging!
The BVI Tourist Board is introducing a scheme to invite visitors to contribute to worthy causes, noticeably education. In my opinion this is a bad idea. We like to think we are a pretty well advanced nation, not some third-world failed state. If this goes ahead, in a short time we will have schoolchildren running after tourist buses, as they do in The Gambia, shouting, “Gimme pen! Gimme pen!” And they say tourism should not affect the local culture.
BVIHSA donations
The BVI Health Services Authority has been inviting organisations, businesses and individuals to make donations towards equipment in the new hospital. I am not sure if this means that there will be a shortfall in the facilities being contracted for.
The hospital has a new gimmick too. In addition to the recently announced new charges ($10 an hour for a bed if you do not leave when discharged is quite an expensive hotel!), the cashiers have been instructed to invite “customers,” or whatever they call us, to make a “contribution” to whatever service we are attending for. Apparently, this is particularly for seniors who, the in normal course of events, don’t have to pay for treatment.
They could try charging the Filipino way. When I was admitted to the Makati Medical Centre after a serious road accident, I was asked if I wanted to be on the 12th or 13th floor.
“What is the difference?”
“Five pesos a day.”
“What do you get for that?”
“Wallpaper!”
Private clinics
In the meantime our private medical facilities are raising charges and bringing in more expertise and equipment. This can only be in preparation for the introduction of NHI and their hope for a big share of the pie. We still don’t have any details of where we can go for treatment (hospital or private, at home or overseas) and how much any co-pay contributions might be — or whether there are limits or restrictions.
The proposed introduction date of October is not far away, and the Ministry of Health and Social Development says it will cost an estimated $70 million to run in the first year. That’s a quarter of the government budget.
Cruise tourism
Now what about cruise tourism? The number of visitors is down to 367,000, yet Norwegian and Disney cruise lines are promising 425,000 between them, or they will pay for any shortfall. Can you see that happening? If the new ships have 4,000 passengers each, those two lines alone will have to bring at least two ships a week, every week of the year. Impossible, surely? Remember that Disney has only two ships of that size, and NCL can’t make up the difference.
Are they hoping to persuade the other cruise lines to make up the difference, by paying for their allocated pier space? I can’t see Carnival or Royal Caribbean agreeing! Does our government really think they got a good deal here? I can see the need for a nice cruise ship facility, but it should not come at the cost of selling our soul.
Medical school
The United States Virgin Islands has finally put the last nail in the coffin of the First District representative’s $500,000 idea for a medical school here. With a $31 million donation to St. Thomas, there is no hope for a “foreign” school just 12 miles away in this territory.
{fcomment}