Retired One Bermuda Alliance MP Louise Jackson picked up a $30,000 six-month consulting contract to the Ministry of Health at the start of this year.

Health Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said she’d needed Ms Jackson’s assistance so that “we could hit the ground running” when she took over as Minister.

Ms Gordon-Pamplin told the House of Assembly she’d gleaned the money for Ms Jackson’s short-term consultancy from funding set aside for other contracts.

Ms Jackson has also been appointed to the Bermuda Hospitals Board.

The Minister’s heated debate with Shadow Zane DeSilva over the National Health Plan didn’t yield any release date for the NHP, which is currently on hold.

Telling the House that the financing of the plan for universal healthcare hadn’t been realistic, Ms Gordon-Pamplin said: “I will reject those things that make no sense — and there are things that came to the table that made no sense.”

The coverage plan amounted to “trying to build an umbrella on top of a foundation that was broken”, the Minister said.

Mr DeSilva demanded for the NHP to be “brought out and acted upon post haste”, telling MPs: “If we don’t get on top of our healthcare costs, we’re in deep, deep trouble.”