Strong warnings local health care costs are becoming so exorbitant that soon they will only be available to the "very rich''.

Medical consultant Chuck Peck from Arthur Andersen issued this warning yesterday at the Bermuda Health Alliance luncheon at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

Dr. Peck, who discussed the impact of diabetes, heart disease, asthma and elder care on Bermuda's healthcare system, also revealed that he has been contacted by the US-based Wall Street Journal to discuss Bermuda's system.

Offering a concise update on the state of the Island's healthcare in each of the areas, Dr. Peck noted quite strongly that if his advice was not heeded, local health care costs would continue their strong upward spiral.

Pointing out the unique interplay of Government, private enterprise and the hospital, Dr. Peck said the Wall Street Journal wanted to know about the Bermuda situation.

"The reason we have put our heart and soul into this programme,'' he said, "is because we believe that you can really set a standard for what is going on in the rest of the world relative to private enterprise, government positions and hospitals coming together to actually fix and make something better.

"We are not aware of any other example of all these parties getting together.

"As a matter of fact we have actually been called by the Wall Street Journal who want to do a story on what's going on here because apparently they've not heard of that effort either.'' Noting the importance of partnerships like the agreement between the Health Insurance Association and Johns Hopkins medical centre for cardiac care, Dr.

Peck pointed out that talks were underway for similar arrangements with other facilities including the Lahey Clinic, Partners General which includes Massachusetts General and Brigham & Women's Hospital and the University of Toronto.

"You need to get patients educated so that they understand they can get excellent quality care here,'' Dr. Peck insisted.

"And when they do need to go overseas, they now have some quality contracts in place so that when they go to Hopkins and other places, they do not have costs of $90,000 to $100,000 as has been the case until recently.'' HEALTH HTH