Grand Bahama Health Services
The Community Health Services in Grand Bahama, together with the Rand Memorial Hospital, form a Local Health System, which is called the Grand Bahama Health System. The Rand Memorial Hospital, located in Freeport, Grand Bahama, was originally opened in 1969 as a private facility known as the Grand Bahama Clinic. This facility became a public hospital in 1971.
The hospital has a staff complement of 560 and a bed complement of 86. Rand Memorial Hospital also serves as a community clinic for the Freeport area. The Executive Management Committee comprises the Administrator, Medical Chief of Staff, Principal Nursing Officer and Finance Officer.
It is estimated that the public sector health system in Grand Bahama (with 17,610 hospital inpatient discharges and 123,998 outpatient and community clinic attendances), provided an average of three (3) health service encounters per capita in this local community in the year 2000. This level of coverage compares favourably with the national and regional estimates of this indicator.
The system continues to register positive services impact and health outcomes in the key areas of maternal and perinatal care, resulting in a decrease in the Infant Mortality Rate from 17.0 to 6.2 per 1000 live births between 1996 and 2000. This achievement may be linked to interventions such as early referral and follow-up of high-risk pregnancies, improved neonatal resuscitation systems, strengthened neonatal referral and transfer systems and the opening of a neonatal unit within the GBHS.
Other gains in the health status of the district include reductions in the incidence of HIV/AIDS cases, no reported outbreaks of immunization preventable diseases, no cases of dengue and no other imported cases of malaria since the 3 cases in 1998 and 2 cases in 1999.
Grand Bahama’s complex epidemiological profile is a challenge for the health system. Concerns include the co-existence of conditions such as cardiovascular diseases (hypertension and ischemic heart diseases); communicable diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, acute respiratory infections); malignant neoplasms (breast and prostate cancers); injury and violence (road traffic accidents, homicides, child abuse and domestic violence); drug and alcohol abuse; teenage pregnancy and abortion.
Mental Health conditions (inclusive of schizophrenic psychoses and alcohol & drug addiction) are significant, particularly among males. The male psychiatric ward remains overcrowded with a bed occupancy of over 131% in the year 2000.
The main activities of the Grand Bahama Health Services are directed at the strengthening of its management structure, health social services, its other community-based services and Emergency Medical Services.
The Accident & Emergency Department was strengthened with the hiring of a Trauma Physician Specialist, who now leads this service. A Clinical Psychologist was also employed and now heads the Health Social Services Department. This Clinical Psychologist also provides support to the Employee Assistance Program. The Dorset Management Consulting Group continued its work on completing an infrastructural study of the Rand Memorial Hospital and the preparation of a redevelopment master plan for this institution. Early indications point to the need to prioritise for urgent attention, a new Accident & Emergency Section and a separate General Practice Service for residents of the city of Freeport.
Redevelopment projects of critical urgency at Rand included renovations to the Surgical Ward and Laundry facilities, which were substantially improved. More extensive capital redevelopment plans, including the further renovation of the Accident and Emergency Department and the development of an area for the Library and Training Centre have been deferred pending the consultant’s report on optimal space utility and the feasibility of relocating a number of services to allow for expansion of critical areas.