Last night, I found myself listening to Donna Summer sing “MacArthur Park,” wondering—yet again—why on earth someone left that woman’s cake out in the rain. And then it hit me: I will probably get a clearer answer to that mystery long before I get straight answers from this New Day Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government.

My latest bout of curiosity—bordering on disbelief—centres on the renovations to the Princess Margaret Hospital’s Critical Care Block and its four-plus year delay in completion.

According to The Nassau Guardian headline, “A&E expected to be fully occupied within six weeks, Darville says,” the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. Michael Darville, has once again assured the Bahamian people that relief is just around the corner—six weeks away, to be precise.

The article goes on to explain that with furniture and bedding for PMH’s Accident and Emergency department now finally “in the country,” the department should soon be fully operational. Renovations, we are told, concluded late last year, but officials were waiting—patiently, apparently—for furniture and equipment to arrive.

Dr. Darville noted that renovations inside an existing structure came with “many challenges,” including exterior works that caused interior construction to pause. All fair enough—renovations are messy business.

But here’s where the music starts to skip.

This Critical Care Block project began under the previous Free National Movement (FNM) administration, complete with financing already secured and construction underway. Then came the New Day PLP government, which promptly cancelled the existing deal, reportedly sent back the loan, and assured the country that their approach would be better, faster, and presumably drier—unlike Donna Summer’s cake.

Fast forward more than four years, and we are now being told that healthcare chaos will soon subside because—brace yourselves—the furniture has finally arrived.

Which raises a perfectly reasonable question:
Did it really take over four years to purchase and receive hospital beds, furniture, and equipment?

And a follow-up, for good measure:
If the original FNM contract had been left in place, would the Critical Care Block have been completed years ago—without throwing the healthcare system into prolonged disarray?

By cancelling the original agreement and signing a new one, the PLP effectively delayed not only construction timelines but also the ordering of critical equipment. Why not simply allow those orders to proceed under the original contract? Why dismantle a moving vehicle just to prove you can rebuild it—slower?

Instead, we’ve endured missed deadlines, shifting completion dates, and repeated assurances that this time—really, truly, honestly—everything is almost done.

All of this sounds eerily familiar. After all, this is the very same “cancel first, figure it out later” approach that has stalled progress at the Grand Lucayan Resort in Grand Bahama.

So yes, the New Day Progressive Liberal Party government has some questions to answer. And some of us sincerely hope we get those answers before we finally discover why someone left Donna Summer’s cake out in the damn rain.

Because at this point, that mystery seems far less complicated than the management of healthcare in The Bahamas.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) fails for one reason; it is their nature.

End