An opportunity that can “kill” many birds.

Introduction

Many years ago, when we had to send individuals abroad for medical treatment, they were primarily sent to Nassau Bahamas and then we started sending them to Florida. However, when the National Health Program was established and a review of the amount of money that was spent sending persons abroad to Florida, relationship with overseas medical partners were established in Jamaica and Bahamas and Dominican Republic. There was an exception in which very few cases continue to go to Florida. To this date, I still don’t know the criteria for sending people to Florida versus the Caribbean.

The good news about sending people to Jamaica, Bahamas and Dominican Republic is that we have daily flights to these destinations, the quality of service is just as great as some of the facilities in American and it is also less expensive.

Recently, there appeared to be a shift away from sending patients to the Bahamas and while some patients are still being sent to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, more patients appear to be going to the Cayman Islands and even to Columbia. There are no direct flights to Cayman and so either NHIP must charter a flight to send patients to Cayman or they book a flight to Cayman through Florida or the Bahamas.

I think with the increase in patients being sent to Cayman, it is time to consider exploring flights to Cayman.

My personal experience

During my first medical overseas treatment to Cayman in December 2024, I was able to go on a charter because another individual was scheduled to go on this charter. It was roughly about two and half hours.  On my way back to Turks and Caicos, I came through Miami and so I had to spend the night in Miami which required me to book a hotel and rent a car. As I went through this experience, I wondered how patients who are less fortunate be able to do this or does NHIP charter a plane to return a patient to TCI.

An opportunity for direct regular flights

Given that we are sending so many patients to the Cayman Islands, I think this is a great opportunity to explore regular scheduled services to the Cayman Islands through either InterCaribbean or Caicos Express. We can also consider approaching Cayman Airways about having scheduled services to Turks and Caicos. Do you remember in the past, Cayman Airways was at one point the only airline that provided us with international flights to Florida.

Considering this, Grand Turk does not have any direct international flights, this would be a great opportunity to have Cayman Airways offer services from Grand Turk and Providenciales to Florida and then onto Cayman. In this way, we can kill two birds with one stone, offering direct services for the patients and offering international services to Grand Turk thus increasing the airlift there. This will also help families to be able to move quickly and faster to and from Cayman so other families’ members can take turns helping those families who are hospitalized in Cayman.

An opportunity for savings

Based on one of my previous articles, NHIP spends a significant amount of money on international travel. Can you imagine the cost of a charter to Cayman Islands? Some of these trips are not emergency cases but sometimes the only way to get to Cayman is through a charter. While we may not be able to reduce travel costs significantly, we can certainly save on some of the charter costs.

Conclusion

I am not sure what is going to happen with our two hospitals but in the meanwhile, it looks like we will continue to send individuals overseas to the Cayman Islands for treatment that cannot be done here in TCI.

Therefore, why not consider exploring scheduled flights to the Cayman Islands. We had flights before when there was less traffic and now that we are becoming a household name, this is an opportunity for international route. Who knows? The more suppliers providing international flights, it is possible that it can drive price down too especially if he demand remains the same.