At a Public Accounts Committee meeting in February, Dr Terese Maitland, interim CEO of the National Health Insurance Board (NHIP) has said that the NHIP is decreasing the costs of their treatment abroad programme, and one method is by providing more on-island specialist care.
Covered in the Turks & Caicos Weekly News, the article states that on-island cardiology care by visiting specialists has caused a marked decrease in the number of people sent overseas for treatment and resulted in a decrease in costs.
Dr Temitayo Bewaji, medical director of NHIP, was also quoted claiming that the aim of having the specialists visit the Islands is to ultimately decrease the territory’s treatment abroad costs. He revealed that in 2018, there were more than 230 people sent overseas, while in 2019 that number decreased to close to 116, and said, “We expect that the decrease in numbers would significantly decrease the cost of cardiology services close to half a million dollars for 2019.”
The article states that in 2016 the number of people sent overseas for cardiology issues was 220, in 2017 it was 259 and in 2018 it was 285.
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