A Progressive Labour Party leader hopeful welcomed people who work on the frontline of patient care to hear their opinions on how to reshape the island’s healthcare system.

Curtis Dickinson brought together about 200 people on Monday evening, when doctors, nurses and allied health professionals anonymously shared their concerns and hopes for the future.

Attendees touched on concerns about health insurance and the rampant cost of care, as well as burnout, mismanagement and the need to secure a future workforce.

One woman admonished health insurance companies that abandon their clients in their hour of need.

She said: “I think there should be a law against these insurance companies kicking people to the kerb when they turn 65.”

The woman added: “I have a girlfriend who was a great worker, never sick, and when she went 65 they kicked them to the kerb and now she’s on FutureCare.”

Mr Dickinson, who served as finance minister between 2018 and 2022, announced in April his hope to succeed David Burt as the next leader of the PLP.

Several healthcare workers at the Hamilton Princess and Beach Club meeting emphasised the need for better care for themselves and their colleagues.

One woman said: “If we burn out your resources then we don’t give the quality of care that people need.

“I know some excellent nurses but they don’t get the help they need and other people can suffer because of it.”

Another added: “I think it’s strange that healthcare personnel have the worst healthcare coverage.”

A registered nurse said: “There was a push to almost punish nurses if they took more than a few days off.

“It’s crazy that the people who take care of us don’t get to take care of themselves.”

Harsh hours and lack of assistance, according to contributors, can lead to healthcare hopefuls turning away from the profession.

One woman said: “We’re trying to get young people into this field. But they come in as students and candy stripers and they do see how we’re treated in the trenches and what we have to go through.

“They say ‘I’m out, I’m changing to business’.

“We have the responsibility to make Bermuda a training ground for healthcare.”

One woman shared a story where a senior friend lost her vision to cataracts because she couldn’t afford surgery.

She said: “This is the third-richest country in the world and she’s blind because she can’t afford surgery and she was too proud to ask for help.

“There are a lot of sad cases like this.”

Another woman shared a similar story, in which an 80-year-old friend moved back to Bermuda after living overseas, only to discover her FutureCare costs would be $1,500 a month.

“Your seniors deserve better than this,” she added. “In a few years, someone will be gone because it’s too much.”

One woman, who received National Health Service training in Britain, said there was “no regulation of insurance companies” and that patients ultimately suffered for it.

She added that the hospital’s problem was not underfunding but under-management.

The woman said: “It pains me to tell people what we can and cannot afford to give them.”

One man, who said he’d been in the sector for 20 years, said Bermuda’s approach to post-acute care was a “terrible, terrible model”.

He explained that post-acute care was crucial for recovery after an injury, but was often too expensive to be consistently applied.

The man added: “Much of Bermuda can be split into ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.

“If you fall into a have-not category, you will not recover.

“It is very important that we consider post-acute care if we want to improve our system.”

The man applauded the Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre for having “one of the best models” to follow to improve Bermuda’s healthcare system.

Mr Dickinson told the gathering that his late mother was a hospital worker for 40 years before she died of systemic lupus, making healthcare a personal matter to him in several ways.

He added: “The stories we’ve heard tonight have been powerful and at times extraordinarily difficult to hear.

“They mostly reminded me of something really important — we have a lot of work to do. But for a country as small as we are, given all the talent that we have, I believe we can fix this.”

Jason Hayward, the Minister of Economy and Labour, will challenge Mr Dickinson for PLP leadership at the party’s delegates conference in October.