After 30-odd years of service, the Medical Clinic closed on Friday with more of a whimper than a bang, in stark contrast to the protests and controversy that have surrounded the saga.

Even now, according to volunteers and others, it is not clear how the move of the several thousand people who used the clinic to private practitioners will work out. Apparently, many patients have not yet been assigned a general practitioner, while the whole payment process remains untested.

It should be said that Premier Dr. Ewart Brown, who has been the driving force behind the clinic’s closure, seems to have had the best intentions when he launched this initiative, namely to ensure that all Bermuda residents have quality medical care and that everyone has some form of medical insurance.

That’s all well and good, but there are still innumerable unanswered questions about the policy, and the political capital that has been expended in the last few months.

Aside from the Hippocratic oath, the other guiding principle for doctors is “first do no harm”, another way of saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

In the case of the Medical Clinic, Dr. Brown’s first claim, that the clinic was demeaning to its patients, was answered unequivocally by the patients themselves. They liked the service provided, and they did not feel demeaned.

Dr. Brown then changed tack, claiming the clinic was expensive to run, and that some people were using it when they could very well afford medical insurance.

That may be so, but it was up to the clinic to ensure that its patients weren’t cheating, and further, no figures have been provided to date to show whether services provided in private practice and funded by the Health Insurance Programme (HIP) will prove to be cheaper.

Then too, this follows a trend of the Brown administration, and indeed, of Dr. Brown’s tenure in Transport. This essentially means that once Dr. Brown decided on something, he will drive it through, and will rarely change course.

This was what happened with GPS for taxi drivers and now the same pattern has emerged with the Medical Clinic. A similar pattern, no doubt, will occur with the Southlands development, which presumably will be given a special development order after a General Election, assuming the Progressive Labour Party wins it.

Revelations in the Mid-Ocean News on Friday that Kurron Shares was granted the management contract at the hospital against the recommendations of the Hospitals Board follows a similar pattern as well. Indeed, it is fair to say that the Hospitals Board has been reduced to nothing more than a rubber stamp for the Government, and for Dr. Brown, who, with the greatest respect to Michael Scott, is the de facto Health Minister.

In this context, Dr. Brown bears the greatest resemblance to Margaret Thatcher, who was nicknamed “Tina” (There Is No Alternative) by her Ministers. Baroness Thatcher is an idol to conservatives around the world because she was unshakable in her convictions and was not swayed by polls, and it may be that a substantial segment of the population admires Dr. Brown’s determination and decisiveness.

But determination can become obstinacy, and it should be remembered that Baroness Thatcher ultimately fell because she refused to alter the unpopular poll tax. The Medical Clinic is not Dr. Brown’s poll tax, but he should know that he as he goes forward with policies regardless of their popularity, he is alienating more and more people, many of whom are the natural supporters of the PLP.