When I was an Opposition member of the House of Assembly in 1993, I used to enjoy hearing United Bermuda Party Minister Jerome Dill speak eloquently about the importance of a “reality check”.

He would often interject the term when he was trying to explain the difference between lofty parliamentary language and the real world. We often disagreed on whose version of the real world was correct but we agreed that there was a difference.

Fast forward to last week’s Throne Speech and in particular the One Bermuda Alliance’s promise to introduce “controls” on the importation of medical equipment. In a poorly-worded effort, the Government attempted to justify this draconian measure by claiming that it would reduce healthcare costs.

The pro-business, pro-competition OBA boldly violated the basic tenet of the so-called free market system! They even went as far as to suggest dishonesty on the part of those of us who have invested millions of dollars in modern healthcare technology.

“This high capacity inevitably leads to high utilisation,” the Throne Speech went on “as providers have an incentive to seek a return on their investment. The result is equipment use that is not always medically necessary and that increases health costs.”

That is another way of saying that doctors who own medical equipment order tests that are not necessary. In other words, they cheat and steal under the guise of practicing medicine. I don’t know what happens at all medical facilities, but I know that doctors at Bermuda HealthCare, Brown-Darrell, and in other diagnostic practices in Bermuda do not engage in that kind of activity!

In fact there are more than 60 local doctors who refer patients to our facilities. Is the OBA implying that these physicians are sending their patients to us so we can get a good return on our investment? Or, are they simply trying to use modern imaging technology to determine their patients’ diagnoses, without using surgery as the diagnostic tool?

Shame on the Government! They need a reality check.

Bermuda Healthcare Services and Brown-Darrell Clinic have invested heavily in MRI and CT technology (and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in Customs Duty). In addition to purchasing the equipment, we purchased and maintain state-of-the-art technology which allows our scans to be read real-time by some of the top radiology specialists in the world.

We did so because we believe it is important for Bermuda — a relatively remote island populated by 65,000 people with extremely high incidences of hypertension, diabetes, and heart and kidney disease — to have more than one CT machine and more than one MRI machine.

There have been times when the hospital CT machine was not working, and patients had to receive emergency scans at Brown-Darrell. Bermuda HealthCare’s brand new MRI is a powerful, state of the art machine that has an open bore, and is capable of accommodating many Bermudians who are clinically obese as well as those who are claustrophobic. What would the OBA’s plans be for these patients? Meanwhile, choice and competition in medicine are good things — the ultimate beneficiary is the patient!

No Government agency has EVER reviewed our work to determine if we are performing unnecessary studies at Bermuda HealthCare or Brown-Darrell. How then can they propose to legislate the “control” of the importation of medical equipment?

It would appear that their objective is not improved medical care for Bermudians, even though they say the focus is ostensibly on cost reduction. Many people do not believe them. They believe the focus is personal and that they are out to destroy my practice. I believe that to be the case as well.

Let me make all privy to an unknown fact. MRI’s given at Bermuda HealthCare are billed at 80 percent of the cost that the hospital charges. So, if the OBA’s aim is cost reduction alone, wouldn’t it make sense to direct as many outpatient and non-emergency MRI’s as possible to the Bermuda HealthCare facility to save money? No one has proposed that as an immediate way to reduce healthcare costs.

Further, diagnostic imaging amounts to less than two percent of total healthcare costs in Bermuda. Yet, the OBA is making this relatively small line item its priority healthcare cost reduction target? I wonder why.

As one OBA Government official told me: “We are aiming at you because you are low-hanging fruit!”

So, the OBA would endanger the health of Bermudian patients in order to destroy me? Wow! In response, I would simply say that I am not a mango. I can breathe, I can write, I can talk, and I can fight.

I will not sit idly by and see legislation proposed and passed that will endanger the viability of my practice and the health of my patients.