UK company could provide low cost healthcare activist
The hunt for low-cost healthcare has led one campaigner to a UK provider which she believes could treat Bermudians, including the elderly, at a substantially lower cost than in the US.Searching for treatment for Bermuda’s war veterans and their families led Royal British Legion caseworker Carol Everson to Spire International.Locals can refer themselves to Spire International, but with no age cap on the treatment offered, Ms Everson said the company could prove highly suitable for senior patients.In particular, elderly clients with veterans’ pensions say their bills are easier to deal with in the UK rather than at US hospitals.Ms Everson cautioned: “I’m not trying to get people to run off to England.”Government’s latest report on Bermuda’s healthcare costs identifies overseas treatment as the top culprit in the Island’s spending, she noted.“Spire could be a good alternative source of overseas treatment where treatment isn’t available here in Bermuda.”Ms Everson shared an e-mail exchange with Spire International, in which a company representative notes that Bermudian patients often travel to the US, which has “the advantage of being nearer but as we know can be very expensive and there is uncertainty over the final bill”.For example, according to quotes supplied by Spire International, a hip replacement operation at one of the company’s clinics could cost between £9,989 to £13,000.Ms Everson believes that, as British Overseas Territories citizens, Bermudians may qualify for lower cost treatment in UK hospitals if they can withstand taking a longer journey to receive it.With so many healthcare providers available overseas, sourcing a good deal for Bermudians has taken her no small amount of sleuthing.“It started off as an enquiry for an elderly local client who had receiving dialysis,” she said.The client, who requested not to be named, required irradiated human plasma from donated blood the only treatment available for his condition.“The cost to their insurance company was $20,000 a month, and the client was being asked to provide $4,000 a month, which was impossible for him to pay, and would be for many people,” Ms Everson said. “Dialysis is what’s keeping him alive.“During the course of my research into the plasma, I found that other countries could provide plasma at a far lower cost than in Bermuda. We were able to find a cheaper supply in Canada, and because there is no generic form of plasma available, and we were able to prove there was no generic, and we were able to get those costs temporarily waived.”With a certificate from the Department of Public Health, the plasma could be imported duty free to the Island.A further search, however, uncovered possibly cheaper UK sources for irradiated plasma through Spire International.“Spire has a network of 37 private hospitals in the UK,” Ms Everson said. “They have an international division, they offer cardiac treatment, cancer treatment services, radiotherapy, oncology, all major surgeries, and they consider their prices to be substantially lower than US prices.“I have a war veteran client who just came back from prostate surgery in the Lahey Clinic. We used money from our poppy appeal to have him airlifted for emergency surgery.“Aside from dealing with the other expenses, which came to $144,000, his family had to pay medical bills of $4,000 up front, including $700 for medication, which they had to pay while he was in Lahey. Spire, by contrast, would give them one bill for everything all hospital costs.”Spire has indicated that it would be interested in taking Bermuda patients. Those seeking treatment would need to be fit to travel to the UK by air.Seeking UK treatment, however, avoids emergency airlifts, which have cut off ages of 75 for the Lady Cubitt Compassionate Association, and 80 for Government insurance.Health Minister Zane DeSilva confirmed that he was aware of Spire International, and reported talks with Ms Everson had been “positive to date”.Mr DeSilva said: “Of course, if there is a savings for the people of Bermuda and to the healthcare system as a whole, we will certainly explore this option.“But, due diligence must be completed first before any decision is made. If anyone has any ideas with regard to reducing healthcare costs in Bermuda, my door is always open.”A Ministry of Health spokesman said that details on Spire International’s services had been passed on to the Bermuda Hospitals Board.“The Ministry of Health encourages people to seek treatment locally in the first instance, and then recommends that they work closely with their health service provider when selecting overseas care,” the spokesman said.Suggestions to the Ministry of Health should be submitted as a formal proposal for research.Michelle Jackson, Vice President of Group Insurance for local insurers Argus Group, confirmed that the company has begun its own investigation of Spire International with the hope of establishing a relationship.“I hadn’t heard of Spire prior to my conversation with Ms Everson,” she said. “I got our overseas network people to start checking up.“Argus uses a management care company called CMN to handle its handle these kinds of negotiations and assessment. It’s a bit of work to see if they can negotiate better rates as well as quality. It’s a situation where we want to make we’re not just getting a great deal, but also sending people to quality facilities.”Useful website: www.spirehealthcare.com.
At the age of 86, Bermudian veteran Kenneth Dunkley is part of a dwindling number of locals who joined the armed forces in the Second World War.
After enduring gruelling surgery at a US clinic, Mr Dunkley counts himself lucky to be alive. But family members question if the cost and complication of his treatment at the Lahey Clinic might have been avoided if he could have been sent to the UK instead.
The Devonshire senior is no stranger to matters of life and death: seventy years ago, following the Japanese attack on the US at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, he signed up to join the Royal Navy.
“I was young and I'd never been around guns, and I didn't know the danger,” Mr Dunkley recalled. “I was just 16-years-old.”
Getting a job as a saloon steward aboard the HMS
Suma, Mr Dunkley learned fast about war: the ship took a German torpedo to its stern while out on patrol in the Atlantic.Later in the war, he took a job as the leading hand aboard the “liberty ships” that ferries crew from land to ships offshore.“I got blown up twice,” Mr Dunkley recalled. Both incidents occurred during fuelling of the boats.Over the past summer, Mr Dunkley's brush with mortality was of a strictly medical nature.Bleeding internally from his prostate, he was kept in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for two weeks while doctors evaluated his condition.“While I was there, they notified my doctor on the Sunday,” Mr Dunkley recalled. “The doctor came to see me on the Monday, and they operated on Tuesday. But I was in terrible pain. I would not wish that on anybody.”Complications from blood clots led to an argument with hospital staff as to whether or not Mr Dunkley's condition could be treated in Bermuda, his daughter Lillian said.“They wanted him to take a commercial flight to the US, and we said no,” said Ms Dunkley.Ultimately, the Royal British Legion paid for Mr Dunkley to be airlifted for emergency treatment at the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts. His family credits the surgery with saving his life.Although his war veteran's insurance covered Mr Dunkley's treatment afterwards, meeting upfront payments proved highly stressful, Ms Dunkley said.“I had to use money that I felt, if things were organised differently, I wouldn't have had to pick into,” she said. “Payment was really complicated. As a person with a small income, it was a lot for me.”She added: “There was so much confusion with the war veteran process in the States. They didn't know what was going on.“My father couldn't use his war veteran's card. It's a whole different thing in the States. So I think for veterans to get treated in England, it would be a lot easier.”By the time Mr Dunkley was sent overseas, his condition was so grave that he required immediate care. A veteran seeking UK treatment would have to be fit enough to take a commercial flight to receive it.For the Dunkley family, any cheaper alternative coupled with the possibility of less bureaucracy owing to Bermuda's historical link to the UK would be worth investigating.“I feel that our seniors should be looked after much better than they are,” Ms Dunkley said. “The system's got to change.”
