NHI needs policy change to facilitate transplantation – Dr Heskith A. Vanterpool
This call was made by a team of doctors who on Saturday, December 7, 2019, performed the first ever kidney transplant in the Virgin Islands (VI).
According to them, the Bougainvillea Clinic and the transplantation’s team of doctors, nurses and medical administrators took on the cost for the procedure which made history in the Virgin Islands.
At a press conference called by owner of the private hospital, Dr Heskith A. Vanterpool and which had on its panel some of the key players in the surgeries- Drs Dwayne Thwaits, Obi Davies-Ekwenna, Craig Stoutt and Adeybja Irundiye- the success of the procedure was hailed while donor, Nikko Salmon, 28, was described as a hero for putting his life on the line for his dad, Neville Salmon, 54.
Nikko, who is a construction worker and a player for the One Love Football Team, has had his own challenges in the past medically, having lost two fingers in an accident.
‘Change policy of NHI to include transplantation’
Expressing that they are not concerned about the financial benefits that can be derived for the private hospital but rather the opportunities of giving persons with kidney challenges the chance at a better and longer life, the team of doctors publicly called for a policy change in NHI.
Written into the benefits policy of NHI are the area of medical care and treatment that are covered and not covered. In the category of not covered, is transplantation.
Owner of Bougainvillea Clinic, Dr Vanterpool said when he appealed to NHI to cover transplantations, he was told in essence that they can see the logics in covering, “But our rule says we don’t cover.”
He said that in coining the policy it was only looked at that transplantation was expensive but failed to consider, “It is half as expensive as dialysis because the first year of transplantation, the actual event of the transplant plus the maintenance of the patient on medication and other things amounts in one year to the same amount that you spend on dialysis. But in the following year and years it reduces significantly and in very few years that patient has almost no need for medication, their lives are prolonged and they are back to normal.”
The justification
While noting that he hasn’t the exact figure, Dr Vanterpool said that it is his understanding that the Government is currently spending over six million dollars a year on the dialysis unit, “The dialysis unit has 12 or 13 dialysis machines and they are maintaining around 56 patients on dialysis. So they are 56 patients that gets treatment three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, or Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays.”
He explained that the procedure goes for approximately four hours,” Then they catch themselves, they might be able to work in between or not. So effectively in a year over $100,000 is spent on each patient. If you took six million, divide by sixty patients, that is a hundred thousand dollars for each patient.”
Continuing to make his case, Dr Vanterpool added, “And that figure does not necessarily take into consideration or into account all the things that happen with dialysis patients outside the dialysis machines, medication, sometimes fixing their fistulae, other surgeries etcetera.”
It was revealed that there is one type of medication among several others that had to be imported for the care of the Salmons’ that cost some $12,000. This cost was absorbed by Dr Vanterpool and his team and they are committed to assisting the patients in absorbing other costs for medication that are necessary for a full recovery.
16 Responses to “NHI needs policy change to facilitate transplantation – Dr Heskith A. Vanterpool”
I am glad that the child helped his father who agreed to given him one of his kidneys. However, Dr. Expensive didn't know that NHI needed to change policy to help us here in the BVI but he know it need to change now to accommodate him and his expensive prices after he took up his prices that we can’t afford here. The sad part is that he has most of the shares in NHI.
The doctor wants policy change for transplant so he can get more money in his pocket? What about policy change so that locals can go to doctors of their choice whether here or overseas? What about policy change to accomodate locals and not people who come just to make money? Locals have no place to go when NHI goes bankrupt. What about change in policy so that members of the community can purchase insurance at reasonable rates and NHI does not have to be primary for them? Please think on the Nationals of this country first.