Bermuda has reached a ?tipping point? regarding its health care provision, underlining the importance of an arms-length group to investigate and monitor the needs of its population.

Ensuring that happens is the reason for the newly created Bermuda Health Council, which is being chaired by former academic Michael Bradshaw.

It will bring together people from a number of professions and also have a collaborative counterpart committee linking medical professionals, health insurance companies and ultimately the Government with the aim of making better decisions and focusing on regulating and enhancing the Island?s health services. Disparities and inequalities in the health care are showing up in Bermuda, and while they may not rival the shocking inequalities of different groups exposed in the aftermath of the hurricanes that battered the southern USA last year, they are still cause for concern. While the new health council, unveiled by Health Minister Patrice Minors in December, will need to get up and running before its role becomes truly apparent, Mr. Bradshaw has some clear thoughts: ?The object of the council is pulling everyone together and creating a quality health system that?s efficient and effective.

?We are being given the opportunity to do something at this juncture in Bermuda. We all recognise the cost of health care is going up and the inequalities that are being more exasperated as a result. We (on the council) have pledged our loyalty and time and putting away any private agendas to see that the gaps that exist do not widen and that we find solutions.?

The health council will be arms-length to the Government and will work in conjunction with a collaboration committee.

It will investigate what is happening and seek to address health service concerns and difficulties through its collaborative make-up. According to Mr. Bradshaw the work of the council is intended to be transparent and accessible to the public, and once the logistics of setting up premises and employing personnel are out the way, it should be an organisation where information can be brought together from doctors, hospitals, health insurers and others and be shared openly for the good of the population. The first meeting of the council is due to take place at the end of this month.

Mr. Bradshaw, who worked for 20 years at Bermuda College, said he felt privileged to be the first chairman and said he was particularly pleased that an emphasis will be placed on accountability, performance and evaluation ? areas where he has found of life-long interest.