Tawanna Wedderburn wants to put general practitioners at the centre of care as she works to improve the island’s health.

As the new chief executive officer of the Bermuda Health Council, Ms Wedderburn outlined her vision for the future of healthcare in Bermuda to The Royal Gazette.

“We have to promote the GP, or the primary care physician, as the centre of care,” she said. “The primary care physician has a lot of information about the patients that they see and most patients, the vast majority of patients, have good relationships with their primary care physician.

“It’s really within the context of the office that good changes can be made towards improving health outcomes, ensuring the population’s health. It comes from that one-on-one contact.”

But this is only one part of Ms Wedderburn’s vision, which also includes educating people about making wise choices regarding their health.

“We are at a time when we cannot have everything, so we have to make some decisions about what is important to health and what’s important to the population’s health,” she said.

According to Ms Wedderburn, total health expenditure in Bermuda has dropped from $705 million in 2014 to $693 million in 2015 and the level of compliance for employers obtaining health insurance has increased, although there were still gaps for the uninsured.

According to the Steps Survey 2014 and the Department of Statistics, about 8 per cent of the population are uninsured, Ms Wedderburn said. And since 2012, the number of people insured through the Standard Health Benefit has declined from 50,129 in 2012 to 47,854 in 2015. But she stressed that Bermuda’s population is also ageing, with estimates suggesting that 20 per cent of the population will be over 65 by 2020, up from 14 per cent in 2012.

To help promote health, Ms Wedderburn wants insurers to offer more “innovative” coverage and benefits focusing on prevention and enhancing the dignity of care towards the end of life. While some are already doing so, she said this would help the island move away from a focus on acute care and catastrophic conditions and events.

Determining which services are being offered locally that are not affordable and discussing whether they are needed for the population at this time is also important, she said. Her vision also includes improving the standards of charities providing clinical care and consolidating their efforts to avoid duplication, in line with work already being done by the Bermuda National Standards Committee.

In terms of the Health Council itself, Ms Wedderburn will continue working towards making healthcare more affordable, as well as focusing on the uninsured and on mental health.

“We have a commitment to sharing data and various guidelines and we will be doing that in the months ahead,” she said, adding that BHeC would also be looking at how the financing of the health system can be improved. But Ms Wedderburn stressed that the Bermuda Government also had a “very important” part to play.

“Governments around the world, not just in Bermuda, are struggling with the cost of healthcare and as Bermuda also begins to have discussions, we really have a responsibility as government to encourage health because healthy people are productive people. Productive people positively influence the economy of your system. A healthy economy means healthy people, means productive people.” But she said every resident is part of government and “has a responsibility to promote the health of each other”.

“There are six different components here and my vision in going forward is to ensure that each of those components are able to interact in a way that promotes better health outcomes and promotes a healthy population,” she said.

Ms Wedderburn officially took up her new post on January 13, having worked with BHeC since 2007 as a project manager, then director of health regulation and acting CEO. Her responsibilities as CEO include overseeing the implementation of the Bermuda Health Action Plan, reporting on health expenditures and financing, setting drug prices, licensing health insurers, monitoring employers’ compliance with the Health Insurance Act and co-ordinating health system reforms. Jeanne Atherden, the Minister of Health, Seniors and Environment, said: “The Bermuda Health Council has an important role to play in supporting the Ministry’s stewardship of the island’s health system to improve quality and reduce health costs.”

She added that Ms Wedderburn’s “prior knowledge would ensure seamless continuity as we bring forward important reforms” and wished her every success in her new role.