A NEW MANAGEMENT MODEL FOR Q.E.H AND OTHER STATUTORY CORPORATIONS

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is currently in the news for all the wrong reasons, and all of the controversy seems to centre around the "Board’ of the QEH!

The National Union of Public Workers, is accusing the ‘Board’ of flouting established industrial relations practises by appointing politically sent "johnnies come lately" over the heads of temporary workers who have served the QEH for as long as 10 years, while the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners is also accusing the "Board’ of having breached the contracts of medical doctors employed at the QEH by failing to first advertise internally at the QEH for candidates for prestigious consultancies at the Hospital.

In both instances, it is the relatively anonymous and somewhat mysterious ‘Board’ of the QEH that is being identified as the source of the unions’ displeasure. The question therefore arises - just who or what is this ‘Board’ of the QEH?

As many Barbadians would be aware in 2001 the previous Barbados Labour Party administration transformed the QEH into a statutory corporation with the passage of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Act, and placed our sole national hospital under the management of a 13 person "Queen Elizabeth Hospital Board".

After a 2008 amendment, the Act now stipulates that the Board shall consist of eleven persons appointed by the Minister of Health, along with two ex-officio members in the form of the Chief Medical Officer and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health. The Act also expressly stipulates that "members of staff of the Hospital shall not be appointed as members of the Board".

And so, the current, Democratic Labour Party (DLP) appointed Board of the QEH consists of a little known Anglican priest - Rev. Guy Hewitt - who is Chairman of the Board; attorney-at-law and former D.L.P candidate - Francis De Peiza - the Deputy Chairman; and a number of ordinary Board members - Cardinal Fenty, Lisa Niles, Natasha Small, Junior Allsopp, Lawrence Clarke and Dr Irvine Brancker.

Now, the QEH is the single largest institution in the whole of Barbados, employing some 2,500 workers, carrying out some of the most technical and complicated medical procedures imaginable, and commanding an annual budget of some $157 million. The QEH is therefore an extremely large and complex organisation. And such an organisation cannot be adequately managed by a group of part time Directors who are not intimately involved with the complicated workings and procedures of the Hospital on a daily basis!

In order to make proper informed management decisions about the QEH, the decision makers must be possessed of the specialized knowledge on which the Hospital operates, and must be intimately involved with the everyday exchange of information within the Hospital. And clearly, a group of Directors operating part time and meeting for a few hours once a month will not be equipped with the intimate knowledge and insight required to make complicated decisions about the QEH! After all, running a large and complicated modern hospital requires serious knowledge and attention!

The Peoples Empowerment Party (PEP) therefore has grave reservations about the capacity of Messers Hewitt, De Peiza and the others to effectively manage the QEH! Clearly, the persons with the required knowledge and hands-on experience to make informed management decisions about the QEH are Chief Executive Officer, Dr Dexter James, and his team of senior medical, engineering and administrative full time staff. And they must therefore be permitted to manage their institution free of inappropriate intrusion by relative "outsiders" who are not sufficiently integrated in the running of the institution to possess the knowledge required for complicated decision-making.

This is not to say that there is not a role for a government appointed "supervisory" Board to play in the overall administration of the hospital. But the correct role of such a government appointed body should be the more restrictive but very important one of ensuring that the technocratic management structure seriously pursues the fundamental objectives set by Government for the Hospital, and that they adhere to the operative rules and principles, and operate with integrity and accountability to the people and Government of Barbados. And of course, the Board should also have the power to discipline where there are clear breaches of the rules.

If this is to be the role for the
Government appointed Board, then persons should "NOT" be appointed to such boards on the basis of partisan political party affiliation! Rather such Boards should be composed of outstanding and publicly known citizens, possessed of impeccable and publicly recognised reputations for integrity and high professional competence.

We, the citizens of Barbados, should know and have confidence in the people who are placed in a supervisory role over major public institutions that we are underwriting with our precious tax dollars! And we cannot, in all honesty, say that the current Board of the QEH, as a whole, fits this criteria of public recognition of reputation and merit! In fact, we in the PEP could easily think of 100 publicly recognised outstanding citizens who are much better qualified to lead a properly focussed QEH Board than Messers Hewitt and De Peiza.

The PEP is therefore hereby making a call for a revolutionary restructuring of the management structures of all the major statutory corporations. Let the professional full time officers manage with a large degree of independence. And let state appointed supervisory Boards be appointed on the basis of undoubted public reputation, rather than on the basis of partisan political connections!