Bermuda’s National Health Plan has been put “on hold” pending a review of the ambitious programme.It had been expected that the plan would provide universal healthcare for residents by next year.However, a Health Ministry spokeswoman yesterday said that the NHP was under review because parts of it “do not fit in with the Government’s views”.Meanwhile Shadow Health Minister Zane DeSilva insisted that the plan had “been scrapped”.A search by this newspaper found the NHP’s website, Facebook page and e-mail address had been discontinued.Sources close to the plan told The Royal Gazette they doubted Government intended to pursue it.Mr DeSilva described the decision to get rid of the plan as “a social injustice to the people of this Country”.“Legislation has been tabled for an increase in hospital fees and the Standard Health Benefit,” he said. “We’re looking at an increase across-the-board, of about 20 percent on the Standard Health Benefit. You know the insurance companies will put five to ten percent for administration on top of that; our people are going to be hit hard come April 1.“I’m not saying the same thing wouldn’t have happened under the Progressive Labour Party but it shows what’s really at stake if they do away with the NHP.”He continued: “There were 72 people who devoted thousands of hours of their time to this. I don’t mind if they rename it, rework it or make it better. I’d be the first to stand up and give congratulations for any improvement whatsoever. I can’t believe they are dropping it when health costs in this Country are soaring.”Government last night insisted the plan hadn’t been scrapped.“Contrary to Opposition suggestions that the National Health Plan has been set aside, the Minister of Health and Seniors reiterated as she has said in previous public statements that the National Health Plan is on hold.“There are certain aspects of the plan that do not fit in with the Government’s views, but the full plan is still under review.“The team who worked on the National Health Plan will, in the coming days, make a full presentation on the plan and the reports from the Benefit Design Task Group and the Finance and Reimbursement Task Group. From there, the Government can begin to make decisions on which parts of the plan will be retained and which parts will be used as a foundation for other solutions.”Age Concern executive director Claudette Fleming was one of those who helped draft the NHP.“Tremendous amount of stakeholder hours were undertaken by credible local and international professionals with respect to the background work” for its eventual development, she said.“I sincerely hope that this information can be used in some meaningful way to improve the significant challenges of containing healthcare costs and providing quality healthcare services for the benefit of the Island’s residents.”In her Budget brief earlier this month, Health Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin told MPs that there were “many facets of healthcare that needed to be addressed as a precursor to implementing anything that resembled a cogent and equitable plan”.She said universal coverage “could not be implemented against the backdrop of a fundamentally dysfunctional system” and that the system would have to be fixed before “sugar-coating our needs with an overarching plan that could become unwieldy and expensive”.