You run a practice in Bermuda. Whether you’re managing a busy dental clinic, a veterinary surgery, a medical lab, or a hospital department, you’ve likely had a moment recently where you stared at an empty inbox and thought, “Did they just ghost me?”
You are not crazy. And you are definitely not alone.
We need to have an honest conversation about what is happening in the global healthcare supply chain. As someone deeply involved in medical devices and consumables, we are seeing a fundamental shift. The era of "next-day" responsiveness is gone. The culture of customer service has changed, and when you combine that with the unique administrative and political hurdles of bringing goods onto this island, we are facing a perfect storm.
Here is what we are seeing in the market, why it’s happening, and, most importantly, how we need to change the way we plan to survive it.
The "Ghosting" Culture
Five years ago, if you emailed a supplier about a specialized catheter, a dental autoclave part, or a specific veterinary instrument, you got a reply within 24 hours. Today? You might wait a week. You might wait three. Or you might get nothing at all until you chase them down.
This isn't just incompetence; it is a structural change in the industry.
- The Brain Drain: Post-pandemic, many manufacturers lost their most experienced technical sales reps. The new guard is often under-trained, overwhelmed, and managing territories three times the size of their predecessors.
- The "Small Fish" Reality: Let’s be brutal. When global supply chains are pinched, massive hospital networks in the US and Europe get priority. A custom order for a single practice in Bermuda often sits at the bottom of the pile. They aren't ignoring you out of malice; they are ignoring you because their internal algorithms deprioritized the lower volume clients.
The US Bottleneck
Historically, Bermuda has been best equipped to import from the US. Now, many US goods are subject to heavy tariffs, so they are more expensive there. Also, in the US, political shifts and changing regulations regarding imports have turned many a "standard shipment" into a multi-week ordeal stuck on the docks. This directly translates into shortages at US vendors.
If the US quagmire wasn’t enough, there is local friction. We all know the drill, but it feels like the drill has become a jackhammer recently. Administrative barriers have hardened. Importation processes that used to be routine are now prone to unexplained pauses.
When you combine a US supplier who takes weeks to ship with a local system that takes longer to clear, "Just-in-Time" inventory isn’t just risky - it’s dangerous.
The Cost of "Old School" Thinking
In the past, you could run your consumables down to the last two boxes, place an order, and be fine. If a piece of equipment started making a funny noise, you’d call an overseas tech when it broke, and they'd get here in a week or two (not great, but bearable).
In this new economy, that strategy is a ticking time bomb.
- For the Vet: Running out of a specific anesthetic means canceling surgeries.
- For the Dentist: A broken compressor with a part on backorder could mean a dark chair for months.
- For the Lab: A delay in reagents means delaying patient diagnoses.
We are seeing practices panic-buying at premium prices or suffering extended downtime simply because they are playing by 2019 rules in a 2025 market.
The Solution: Strategic Pessimism (and Lighthouse Medical)
We aren’t telling you this to depress you. We are telling you this because there is a solution, but it requires a mindset shift. We have to stop planning for success and start planning for friction.
This is where Lighthouse Medical steps in.
We are not just a catalog you order from. We are your logistical shield. Because we understand that the culture has slowed down, we have sped up our planning cycles.
Here is what engaging with us looks like:
1. The 12-Month Horizon We sit down and look at your utilization rates for the next year. We aren't talking about next month's gloves; we are talking about ensuring your Q4 material is secured in Q2. We take on the burden of cash flow and warehousing so you aren't scrambling.
2. The Buffer Against "Ghosting" We have the relationships. When a generic email from a Bermuda practice gets ignored, a call from Lighthouse Medical gets answered. We aggregate volume across the island, which gives us the leverage to demand answers from suppliers that you might not get on your own.
3. Navigating the Red Tape We deal with the docks, the customs forms, and the administrative headaches every single day. We know where the potholes are and how to drive around them. You shouldn't have to spend your lunch break on hold or trying to figure out who is responsible for what; that’s our job.
Let’s Get Ahead of It
The days of quick fixes are gone, perhaps forever. The companies manufacturing your essential tools are moving slower, and the path to get those tools to your door has more gatekeepers than ever.
You cannot change the global supply chain, and you cannot rewrite politics. But you can change your timeline.
If you are looking at your equipment or consumables and thinking, "We'll worry about that when it gets low," you are already late.
Let’s talk. Let Lighthouse Medical build a long-term sourcing roadmap for your practice. We will handle the logistics, the nagging, and the planning, so you can get back to what you actually signed up for: caring for your patients.
Reach out to us today. Let’s plan for 2026 before 2025 even finishes throwing its curveballs.
