“The Contract is The Problem, Not The Hospitals”

Premier says people deserve the full story as he lays out the cost of the InterHealth Canada concession and Government’s plan to reclaim public control

By Deandrea Hamilton | Editor

Turks and Caicos, August 4, 2026 – PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands — Saying the public deserved to hear the whole story, Premier Charles Washington Misick laid bare the InterHealth Canada debacle, revealing that more than $827 million has been paid by the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands under the hospital concession while insisting, “the contract is the problem, not the hospitals.”

Delivering what he described as “a full and frank account” to the House of Assembly on July 31, the Premier said the people “deserve honesty. They deserve to understand how we arrived at this moment, what it has cost them, and what this Government is doing about it.” He acknowledged that the opening of modern hospitals in Providenciales and Grand Turk marked “a genuine step forward for healthcare,” but argued that the agreement supporting them was fundamentally flawed.

“The hospitals themselves are an asset. The contract under which they are operated has become an unsustainable burden.”

Turning to the origins of the agreement, Misick relied heavily on the findings of the Commission of Inquiry led by Sir Robin Auld, saying the public must understand why the dispute has become so costly.

“There was no competitive tender. The construction contract was awarded to a company linked to the same ultimate beneficial owner as InterHealth Canada itself — creating, in the Commission’s own words, a closed commercial loop in which public money flowed from the government to one entity and back to the same private interest through another. The Commission found this constituted an unacceptable conflict of interest.”

He continued:

“Those findings had consequences that extended far beyond this project. They contributed directly to the suspension of our Constitution and the imposition of direct rule from London in 2009.”

The Premier said he was not revisiting the history to assign blame but because “the House and the public must understand the nature of the problem we inherited — and why the structural flaws embedded in this agreement from the very beginning have proven so difficult and so costly to resolve.”

Misick also outlined what he described as the staggering financial burden now carried by taxpayers.

“Between 2016 and 2025, this Territory spent $827.8 million on public healthcare. Today, healthcare consumes more than 32 percent of all government expenditure and 8.1 percent of our GDP.”

He argued the concession’s payment model is largely responsible for those costs.

“The operator was reimbursed for its actual costs, plus a fixed margin… That is not a sustainable model for any healthcare system. And it is a central reason why the cost of this arrangement has grown to the levels we are now confronting.”

Looking ahead, the Premier said the Government’s focus is not only on resolving the current concession but also on preventing small island states from facing similar legal and financial burdens in the future.

“We will engage the United Kingdom Government… We will work through CARICOM and the Commonwealth to advocate for reform of international arbitration — to introduce procedural flexibility, development-sensitive interpretation, and affordability safeguards that protect small states from the disproportionate burden that the current system imposes.”

He closed by reaffirming his Government’s objective:

“This Government will resolve the concession. It will reclaim the hospitals. And it will build a healthcare system worthy of the trust that our people place in it.”