‘Sad saga’ at QEH

“ANOTHER EPISODE in the sad saga of the harassment and persecution of healthcare workers at all levels at the QEH.”That is how Opposition Leader Mia Mottley yesterday described a decision by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) board to part company with two of its consultants.She made the comments during a Press conference at the Opposition Office at Parliament Buildings, The City.Referring to the industrial action called by the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) over the sacking of a consultant, Mottley stated: “The country is facing very clear and difficult economic problems . . . . that we should now be distracted to deal with a number of issues that affect the access to healthcare by Barbadians and the quality of our governance is very disturbing.”She said Barbadians “need the assurance that they can access quality health care” adding that “the QEH needs to be made aware that whatever action it wants to take, it cannot do so in a manner that jeopardises patient care”.As to the issue surrounding one consultant whose contract was not renewed, Mottley said: “Reports that a consultant physician was effectively denied access for two days to his patients, some of whom were operated on this week, are shocking and unconscionable.”She also charged: “To refuse to renew contracts for doctors who have been employed for more than two decades without giving reasons or having warning letters on their files, must inevitably lead to controversy. “To seek to dismiss your only urologist when he had filed legal proceedings of which they were aware (and when he is on call until August and is rostered until the end of September) is to ignore the needs of your patients and to be contemptuous of the court.”Mottley suggested that this was also done while BAMP and the QEH were in the middle of industrial negotiations.She called the action “deplorable” and stated: “These decisions defy common sense and the basic tenets of sound administrative and industrial practice. However, they also place at risk the care of your patients whose only interest is to get better.”Saying that there was a deafening silence from Minister of Health Donville Inniss on the matter, Mottley stated: “I am appalled that in the middle of a medical crisis that the Minister of Health left Barbados yesterday for a vacation – a Mediterranean cruise. Therefore the Acting Prime Minister must seek to have this situation resolved as a matter of urgency and have the minister return to Barbados and defer his vacation.” (MB)