Prime Minister Philip Davis’s Remarks at The Bahamas Hospital Groundbreaking Ceremony

“A New Chapter in Heathcare”

There is an old saying: if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

I begin there because a new chapter in health care will require all of us going together.

Government, clinicians, caregivers, families, schools, churches, employers, and communities each have a role to play.

Health care matters to every Bahamian because it reaches into every home and touches every family. It raises the hardest questions any country must answer. 

Will care be there when it is needed? 

Will treatment come in time?

Will a family already under strain be pushed even further by the cost of illness?

The country deserves a wider and more serious health care debate than the one we often have. 

Too much of the public argument has been confined to the pressure inside one institution, one long wait, or one painful experience. 

Those concerns are real, and no responsible leader should dismiss them. Yet the duty of leadership is to move beyond describing the strain and to define the system we intend to build.

That is the larger question before us. 

What kind of health system should The Bahamas build for the next generation?

A modern country cannot depend indefinitely on a health system designed for another age. 

Princess Margaret Hospital was built in 1952 and opened in 1953. It served a smaller population, a different disease burden, and a very different era of medicine. 

Seventy-four years later, the demands placed on that institution are far greater than what it was originally built to carry.  

So today’s groundbreaking carries real meaning. It speaks to the need for renewal, and before I go further, I wish to thank the Government of the People’s Republic of China for helping to make this day possible. Their partnership has helped us reach this point, and we acknowledge it with gratitude.

Still, this moment must be understood in the right way. 

The new hospital in New Providence is part of our vision, but it is not the whole of it. 

Our aim is larger than a single building. We are seeking to move the country from a system under constant pressure to one that is modern in design, fair in access, stronger in prevention, and better able to support the people who depend on it. 

The broader vision also includes the Freeport Health Campus in Grand Bahama and a stronger national system built around access, referrals, and modern care.  

Health care begins in hospitals, but the story of health starts much earlier. 

A stronger system is one that catches high blood pressure before it becomes a stroke, helps a diabetic manage the disease before it advances, detects cancer early enough for treatment to change the outcome, reaches a young person facing depression before despair takes hold, and gives an elderly parent care that preserves dignity. 

It also means that a family on a Family Island should feel that the country sees them fully and serves them fairly.

That requires a clearer national mindset: prevention is better than cure. 

In The Bahamas, that principle has to guide the next stage of reform because our system carries too many preventable diseases. 

Diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, kidney failure, and late-stage cancers are placing a heavy burden on families and on public health infrastructure. 

Too often, people arrive deep into illness, when treatment is harder, the cost is higher, and the emotional toll is heavier.

For that reason, the next chapter in health care cannot be confined to construction alone.

It must be rooted in a practical national philosophy. 

A good health system helps people stay healthy for longer, responds properly when illness comes, and shields families from being broken financially by a diagnosis.

That is the direction a returned Progressive Liberal Party government will pursue.

The first part of that direction is modern hospital infrastructure. 

The new hospital in New Providence sits at the centre of that effort. Alongside the Freeport Health Campus, it forms part of a stronger national framework for care, with better triage, stronger referral pathways, more modern facilities, and more efficient service delivery. 

That matters for patients, for families, and for the doctors and nurses whose skills deserve an environment that matches them.  

The second part is improving outcomes rather than simply managing pressure. 

A country gets better results when it acts earlier. That is why our plan includes a ten-year strategy to reduce the burden of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease through earlier intervention and community-based prevention. Screening, nutrition, public education, and healthier habits in schools and communities all form part of that work. 

This is sound social policy, and it is also sound economic policy, because earlier intervention reduces later cost and eases the strain on hospitals and households alike.  

A third part of this effort is bringing care closer to where people live. 

In an archipelago, fairness must take into account our geography. Access to decent care should never feel tied to proximity to Nassau. 

That is why telemedicine across major Family Island clinics, mobile clinics for screenings and preventative care, stronger maternal and child health services, and wider access to dental care must all be part of the future. 

Records should move with the patient through a stronger health information system so that care becomes more continuous and less fragmented.  

Another area is financial protection. 

Illness affects the body, but it also places pressure on household budgets, often at the worst possible moment. 

A serious health system has to respond to that reality. 

Expanded NHI drug coverage, stronger backing through the Catastrophic Care Fund, and the extension of contributory health insurance to public servants, including contract workers, are all part of a system that gives families greater security when they need it most.  

Mental health also has to be treated as part of the national health picture. A modern system cannot push this issue to the side. 

A twenty-four-hour suicide prevention line, community mental health centres, and youth-focused support are all necessary if we are to meet people where they are and offer care before private pain becomes public tragedy.  

The same seriousness must extend to the elderly. Too many seniors remain in hospital beds because families have limited options and the wider support structure is too thin.

That puts strain on hospitals and leaves many households carrying burdens they were never properly equipped to bear. 

Better discharge planning, family caregiver support, community-based elder services, and greater attention to long-term care form part of the more humane answer.  

No reform in health care succeeds without strengthening the people who deliver it. Doctors, nurses, technicians, ambulance crews, and allied health professionals need a system that backs their work with training, retention, and proper support. 

The PHA Academy has already laid part of that foundation, and the next stage is to connect training and recruitment more closely to the needs of new hospitals, upgraded clinics, and modern community care.  

There is also a record on which to build. 

This administration has already delivered five new clinics and renovated fifty-two clinics across the country. Princess Margaret Hospital and Rand Memorial Hospital are undergoing major upgrades, and the groundwork for the next phase is already in motion.  

So the real test before the country is whether we respond to this challenge with a coherent long-term plan or remain caught in a cycle of frustration without direction. 

Bahamians are ready for a health care debate grounded in outcomes, access, prevention, workforce development, technology, and fairness. 

They are ready for leadership that understands that the new hospital in New Providence forms part of the answer, while the full vision reaches much further into clinics, communities, mental health, Family Island access, medicines, and the dignity of the patient.

At its core, health care is about the kind of country we are building. 

It speaks to dignity. 

It speaks to fairness. 

It speaks to national strength. 

A healthier country is a stronger country. 

A country that catches illness earlier gives families more hope. 

A country that makes quality care more accessible across all its islands is a fairer one.

A country that equips its doctors and nurses properly is a better run one. 

A country that protects families when illness comes is a more decent one.

That is the new chapter I want for The Bahamas. 

A chapter shaped by better outcomes, earlier intervention, stronger public policy, and care that meets people where they are.

A chapter in which prevention stands alongside treatment, where access carries real meaning from Nassau to the Family Islands, and where public policy reflects the lived reality of the Bahamian people.

The values of a nation show themselves in many ways. They can be seen in how children are educated, how communities are protected, how workers are treated, and how care is given to the sick, the elderly, the anxious, the vulnerable, and the families carrying burdens in silence.

And that is why a new chapter in health care will require all of us going together.

We can build a system worthy of the Bahamian people, one that offers better care, earlier care, fairer access, modern facilities, stronger support, and a healthier future.

May God bless our health workers.

And may God bless the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.