“The Government is paying $39m over a ten-year period to acquire the recently completed Harbourside in-patient facility on East Bay Street from Doctors Hospital…” – On 4th December 2025.

According to Michael Darville, Minister of Health and Wellness, the agreement is structured as a 10-year lease-to-own arrangement — 120 monthly payments — totalling $38.9 million. The facility is being acquired to temporarily house the maternity and legacy wards while long-delayed renovations are carried out at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), specifically the kitchen and related infrastructure.

Let’s be clear: those are the publicly stated facts.

Now let’s talk about the part that apparently lives in the forgotten archives of government memory.

The Renovations That Were Already Underway

Under the former Free National Movement’s (FNM’s) administration of Hubert Minnis, there were announced and initiated plans to renovate and modernize sections of PMH, including improvements to critical services. The maternity ward and broader hospital upgrades were part of a phased redevelopment plan intended to keep services centralized while improvements were made.

That was the plan.

Fast forward. Instead of accelerating and completing those renovations in sequence, we now find the government committing nearly $39 million to acquire a private facility to house services that were already supposed to be accommodated within the public hospital’s redevelopment framework.

So naturally, taxpayers might ask:

If the renovation plan had been followed, prioritized, and executed on schedule — would this $39 million expense have been necessary?

Lease-to-Own… or Pay Twice?

The Minister has framed the arrangement as fiscally responsible — spreading payments over 120 months to “ease the burden” on the Treasury [The People].

But here’s the arithmetic problem:

• Renovations at PMH were already contemplated.
• Temporary relocation becomes necessary only when renovation sequencing is delayed or mismanaged.
• Now taxpayers are funding:
  1. The PMH renovations (still ongoing),
  2. A $39m acquisition of a private facility to temporarily house wards,
  3. AND a proposed $267 million specialty hospital, reportedly to be built in western New Providence — largely focused on maternal and specialized women and children care.

At some point, this stops looking like strategic healthcare planning and starts looking like a very expensive game of musical chairs.

The $267 Million Question

While committing to the Harbourside acquisition, the government is also advancing plans for a $267 million specialty hospital project in western New Providence — described as being heavily maternity-focused.

So, let’s recap:

• We are temporarily moving maternity services.
• We are buying a facility to house maternity services.
• We are planning to build a new hospital centred around maternity services.

One could be forgiven for wondering whether there is a unified master plan — or whether each announcement is simply a reaction to the last unfinished announcement.

Project Management, Bahamian Edition

If the prior renovation plan had been executed efficiently and without interruption, there is a legitimate argument that the additional $39 million outlay may have been avoided — or at least reduced.

Instead, the public is now paying for:

• Delays,
• Parallel infrastructure,
• And a long-term financial commitment that will stretch a decade.

All while being told this is the “responsible” solution.

One must admire the confidence.

Because in any other setting — whether in architecture, development, or private enterprise — abandoning an existing renovation plan, incurring millions in additional acquisition costs, and layering on a $267 million capital project would trigger some very serious questions about coordination, sequencing, and oversight.

I would genuinely love to meet the person doing the project management on this. Not to criticize — just to understand the flow chart. Because from the outside looking in, it appears the only thing spreading faster than hospital services across New Providence… is the invoice.

It is my opinion that healthcare infrastructure requires continuity, sequencing, and disciplined execution. When administrations change, patients should not become casualties of political resets.

The public deserves transparency on:

• What specific PMH renovation plans were inherited,
• What timelines were altered or delayed,
• Why the Harbourside acquisition became necessary,
• And how this integrates with the proposed $267m specialty hospital.

Because $39 million is not pocket change.

And if proper follow-through on existing plans could have prevented it, then taxpayers are not just funding healthcare — they are funding preventable inefficiency.

The people of The Bahamas deserve answers.

The people of The Bahamas deserve better.

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

END