Preventive health care, not the latest pills, need to be the focus of Bermuda's health care policy, according to retiring Senate President Alf Oughton.

The Senator, who served the Island for 15 years in the upper house, 10 of which he was the President, was speaking after retiring from the Senate last week.

He should know about the Island's health care as he was the mastermind behind the 170 recommendations listed in a 1996 report on Bermuda's health care that became known as the Oughton Report.

Yesterday he said that while there have been milestones in health care, educating Bermudians on how to take care of themselves was the most important way forward.

"There's still a lot of work to be done in health care," he said. "One of the things highlighted in the report was that Bermudians took their health care for granted. A lot of education on health care can be on preventive care. We have the Rolls-Royce of insurance but what we have to be careful to do is not to abuse it.

"We need to educate people about better lifestyles and there has been a lot in recent years about this, continually educating people on how they can prevent getting sick.

"Because costs of health care and insurance are not going down and everyone talks about how everybody wants the latest pills and quick fixes.

"But we need to make sure people are taking care of themselves."

Among many of the recommendations made in his report, commissioned by the former Premier David Saul and former Health Minister Quinton Edness, was the closure of the medical clinic at the hospital.

Though Mr. Oughton suggested it should be done, in the Senate last year he criticised the way it was handled saying the Health Minister at the time should have sent out an information packet earlier then they did.

And HIP should have been sorted out before Government decided to place medical patients on it, he said. The former CEO of BELCO, however, was happy that the current Government is paying attention to his report, which took four committees two-and-half years to complete.

Other suggestions were the satellite clinics, the first of which will be built by April, 2009, and the focus on seniors and home care.

Preceding the Johns Hopkins report by 12 years, which also highlighted the fact that many seniors were in hospital beds that should be for critical patients, the Oughton Report said they should be getting care at home.

Yesterday Mr. Oughton added that the problem is financially supporting home care because currently senior care at the hospital is almost completely subsidised by Government.

He said: "They don't need to be in the hospital they could possibly be at home and getting care and the government is working towards these things now.

"What doesn't get looked at enough today is the amount of subsidies the government pays to the hospital; 90 percent is subsidised by the government.

"Up to the age of 16 it's free hospitalisation. We need to look at how we move people out of the hospital and how do you subsidise home care."