BARBADOS can brace itself for a protracted dispute between the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) board and the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP), after talks between the parties broke down yesterday.At the end of the fruitless two-and-a-half-hour dialogue, mainly on contractual issues, QEH chairman Reverend Guy Hewitt said BAMP had acted in “absolute bad faith”, and referred to yesterday as one of the most disappointing days in his life.BAMP, which earlier in the day suspended industrial action at the QEH, polyclinics, the Psychiatric Hospital, Geriatric Hospital and district hospitals, said it had been done to facilitate a proposed meeting with Minister of Health Donville Inniss and the hospital board.Hewitt told the MIDWEEK NATION last night that some elements of BAMP had been self-serving and might have a political agenda.“The talks with BAMP broke down because the board realised at the end of them that BAMP was operating in very bad faith,” he said.“It has become clear that they are pushing an agenda to serve their professional interests . . . . They have demonstrated absolute bad faith in terms of following normal industrial relations processes, and I don’t know if we are going to engage this process until BAMP is able to show a foundation upon which we can enter into proper negotiations that they can take the health care system forward.”For its part, BAMP said the meeting came to an abrupt end when it informed the board that it had prepared and booked a paid advertisement, by mandate of its members, prior to agreeing on the meeting with the board.“This has been one of the most disappointing days in my life when I have seen that doctors, who are accorded such a high place of prominence in this country, would show such little consideration for the board who represents the Government, which represents the people of Barbados.“I will ask Barbadians not just [to] pray for the recovery and the resumption of full health care services,” the chairman added, “but really ask them to pray for members of the executive of BAMP.”In a Press release yesterday, BAMP said it was committed to the public to continue its role in the delivery of health care, and that it was keen on “a speedy resolution of the impasse”.The dispute was sparked by the board’s decision to terminate the contract of consultant radiologist Dr Cecil Rambarat. Another consultant, Jerry Emtage, one of the island’s best known urologists, filed an injunction against the QEH after learning he was being removed from the hospital’s list of consultants.
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