Recent protests and articles from concerned hospital workers remind us that under the Progressive Labour Party, our hospital has been woefully underfunded for a long time.
As the OBA predicted when the PLP Government originally put in place the ‘block grant’, the Government has not given the hospital enough revenue to operate properly.
Under the block grant, the hospital receives a fixed amount of money to operate each year from the Government. This is supposed to cover the costs of staff and services (medical treatments), as well as payments to cover financing costs for the public-private partnership that operates the hospital. However, if hospital usage is higher than anticipated in the block grant, there is not enough money. To add insult to injury, in some years, the Government did not even make the full payment amounts on time, and these had to be made up later.
In 2022, $147m was budgeted, but $162m had to be spent. In 2023 $155m was budgeted, but $172m is forecast to have been spent. In 2024, $155m was budgeted again – clearly too little. It’s clear that the PLP Government has routinely underbudgeted for this critical expense. Since the Pre-Budget report states that funding for Government departments is supposed to stay the same this year, it seems we should expect another year of an underfunded hospital, which is just not good enough for Bermuda.
Almost all of us have a disturbing story of a family member or friend who has suffered while they wait in the halls of the emergency room, sometimes overnight, due to lack of capacity and staff at the hospital. And, our hospital workers have toiled for years, including during the tough Covid times, without pay rises at a time when Bermuda’s cost of living has shot up.
Given the recent rearrangement of Ministries, promises of new, undisclosed pay rises to Government workers, and spending of $105m of borrowed money over the past two years, we will all have to wait and see how the Premier’s budget meets his promises. Unfortunately, someone will be disappointed – and we hope it’s not our hospital.
Any content which is considered unsuitable, unlawful, or offensive, includes personal details, advertises or promotes products, services or websites, or repeats previous comments will be removed.
User comments posted on this website are solely the views and opinions of the comment writer and are not a representation of or reflection of the opinions of TNN or its staff.
TNN reserves the right to remove, edit or censor any comments.
TNN accepts no liability and will not be held accountable for the comments made by users.