GOVERNMENT IS UNDER FIRE for reshaping the board that runs the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).

Complaining that some key institutions were being dropped from the board, the Opposition yesterday accused Government of acting contrary to its manifesto promises.

The House was debating a bill providing for major changes in the composition of the 13-member board.

Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley said there was no longer any provision on the board for representatives of important bodies such as the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners, the Barbados Registered Nurses Association, the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados, the Barbados Christian Council, the Barbados Association of Retired Persons, and the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies.

The bill "runs contrary to all the premises of good governance that were put out in the Democratic Labour Party (2008) manifesto", she charged.

She said that BARP and the Christian Council had been on the QEH board to represent the "most vulnerable" groups in the society.

Former Attorney-General Dale Marshall said the trade union movement should be part of any QEH board.

Having board members versed in human resource management and industrial relations was not the same thing as having representative of the labour movement in the boardroom, he argued. (TY)