B.M.D.U. still hopes recommendations will be followed
The doctors say they are frustrated because while their allegations of corruption in the procurement of medical supplies have been confirmed by a quick audit, no action has been taken. And while they have stopped negotiating, they still hope for change.
Dr. Marta Habet, Secretary, B.M.D.U.
“We have some evidence and the audit was done and the evidence will show that that is the only thing we had access on. So you could imagine that there is much more evidence somewhere that is just waiting to be find because as a said, we don’t have access to everything. They are trying to investigate themselves. I think this is the first time that I hear one person is investigating themselves.”
Dr. Beatrice Thompson, Treasurer, B.M.D.U.
“I think you heard Ms, what’s her name, the caller from the Board this morning saying that in the evidence that Mr. Perrera was not involved. In spite of him not being involved, that Board knew that that kind of purchase was being made and therefore they allowed it. Why should you allow such a thing? If it was their personal money ih noh mi wah get allowed. That person mi gwein through the door, true? And in the end, if they allowed it, like weh Dr, Habet seh, dehn as guilty as whoever mi di purchase it. If dehn noh want the Director of Finance answer to it, then probably all ah dehn should answer to it and get out because of incompetence.”
Dr. John Sosa, President, B.M.D.U.
“Mr. Perrera came on board and basically put, I would think he put or somebody put the a person to do the actual work of getting prices, brands of medications and deciding, I think with Mr. Perrera’s input, what to buy and from whom to buy. And I don’t think this supplies officer or this purchasing officer was independent enough to do all that on her own. And Mr. Perrera decided, in a sense, that he would eliminate the DMS and the Chief Pharmacist from the actual looking around to see what medications had a good price for what brand and for what quality. He decided on his own basically that he would get medications at the price he wanted and from whom he wanted.”
Dr. Marta Habet
“Even in one point they’re saying that they are going to—that no charges and no punitive measures are going to bring into the Board. What kind of thing is that? They are the ones that are under scrutiny, it’s not us. We didn’t take the composition of the Board from the top of our heads. There is a book, the Banu Report, and the Ministry of Health is aware of that. This report has many recommendations to advise how the hospital should run, the job description of everybody and what are the things that we need to do. Some of them were done and some, I think for political reasons, were not followed, and one of them was the composition of the Board.”
Dr. Beatrice Thompson
“This problem is being focused just on Karl Heusner and practically just making it look like a Board, B.M.D.U. fight. This is no fight between two entities. This is doctors trying to get better supplies, getting adequate supplies for the patient. So if Karl Heusner gets fifty percent from the Central Medical Supplies, which is the largest hospital in the country, imagine what the rest they get.”
The B.M.D.U. says it will write to the Prime Minister next Monday seeking his intervention. Meanwhile, this afternoon K.H.M.H. C.E.O., Dr. Francis Longsworth called a meeting to introduce the controversial M.O.U. to the staff, but the doctors absented themselves. News Five tried to reach the Minister of Health, Pablo Marin, but he was out of the country. The Ministry’s C.E.O., Dr. Peter Allen was also in meetings, and Labour Commissioner, Ivan Williams, who served as mediator in the negotiations, was attending a workshop in the Cayo District.
