The Bermuda Medical Society has hit back at claims that it was “ridiculous” for suggesting too many people were going overseas for treatment they could get on the Island.

President Dr. Jonathan Murray responded to comments made by founder of the Bermuda Heart Foundation Ramona Anderson in the Mid-Ocean News last week, in which she said doctors had to agree to patients going overseas, so they would only be sent for good reason.

Ms Anderson, who is an executive director of the Bermuda Health Alliance, said she did not believe people used the overseas hospital visits as an excuse to get an all-expenses-paid shopping trip, as claimed by both the Bermuda Medical Society and the Bermuda Medical Association.

And she said, as far as she knew, it was up to doctors to sign patients off.

The medical groups said in The Royal Gazette ten days ago that too many people were going overseas for routine treatments they could receive on the Island, such as tonsillectomies, normal labour deliveries and health examinations, pushing up the price of health care.

They said they understood that some patients had no choice but to go overseas, but said they believed that the insurance companies were encouraging residents to go abroad for some treatments they could receive in Bermuda.

President of the medical society Dr. Jonathan Murray said insurance premiums would continue to escalate unless tighter controls were placed on those people seeking treatment abroad.

And both the medical society and the medical association, along with Health Minister Nelson Bascome, said they would like more people to be referred overseas by a doctor, rather than by an insurance company, which sometimes happens now under the system of Managed Care.

Responding to Ms Anderson's claims, Dr. Murray said: “It was certainly not the intention of the physicians to offend patient advocate groups.

“Patients, of course, are free to seek medical treatment when and where they choose, but what is at issue is who pays for it, especially when equivalent medical services are available on the Island.

“Doctors readily admit that King Edward VII Memorial Hospital has its limitations as a relatively small community-based hospital when compared to large tertiary referral centres overseas.

“And physicians are quick to refer patients overseas when it is medically indicated.

“However, the present Health Insurance Association of Bermuda referral form asks physicians to indicate whether the referral is patient or physician initiated, and whether the proposed treatment is available on the Island or not.

“There is no doubt that in many instances insurance companies are paying for routine health care overseas, such as uncomplicated vaginal deliveries, routine post treatment follow up care, and executive health care physicals in response to the demands of their policy holders.

“The issue again is whether the average employer or employee wishes to pay for such routine overseas medical care in the form of increasing health insurance premiums.”

Ms Anderson last night said she was not aware that insurance companies could make referrals for patients, but said she believed each of the health organisations on the Island, including, Government, needed to work more closely together.

And she said the public needed to be better informed about how the system was operated, as well as given more facts and figures. She said she, like other people, were not fully aware of how referrals were made to hospitals overseas and said she had believed that only physicians made them.

She said: “We have some excellent doctors on the Island, and we have very high standards at our hospital, so I definitely do believe that where possible, people should stay on the Island. There is no need to go overseas. But, in saying that, I think that if people pay for their insurance they should have a choice of where they want to be treated.

“There needs to be some sort of investigation to look at how many people are going overseas for treatment, and why. There needs to be figures produced and the public needs to be provided with the information.”

She said she doubted that many Bermudian women went overseas to have babies delivered when their friends and families were at home. And she said she wanted to see figures that showed so many people going overseas to have routine operations, such as tonsils taken out.

She added: “I just can't imagine women going overseas to have babies. There may have been one at some point, but I don't think that is a very good example.”