The Ministry of Health seems to be remaining silent on its failure to table financial reports from the Hospital and Healthcare Facilities Licensing Board.
Efforts to reach the Minister of Health, Dr Bernard Nottage and his permanent secretary, Mrs Elma Garraway proved futile. Numerous calls were made and messages left at their respective offices, however The Tribune got no response.
On Saturday, The Tribune learned that as much as $9 million might be unaccounted for, as financial reports from the HHFLB have not been tabled for the past eight years by any Minister of Health.
Jerome Gomez, chairman of the HHFLB, confirmed that his administration and that of his predecessor submitted the reports in question to the ministry.
He pointed out, however, that he could not say with any certainty whether they were then tabled in parliament.
Section 28 of the Hospital and Healthcare Facilities Act states that “the minister shall cause a copy of every such report to be laid on the tables of both Houses of Parliament”.
The HHFLB is among a group of advisory, technical and administrative support units in the Ministry of Health.
Its functions include: to issue licenses for the use of buildings as hospitals or healthcare facilities; to regulate and inspect healthcare facilities; to initiate investigations into any matter affecting the management, diagnosis or treatment of a person within the hospital or healthcare facility licensed under the Act; and to appoint qualified persons to be inspectors for the purposes of the Act.
The tabling of financial records is not the first issue to be raised about the HHFLB.
The Act that established the board also requires that all deaths be reported to the Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health within 48 hours.
Section 24:5 states that: “Any administrator who files to make any record required by subsection three is guilty of an offence and is liable for summary conviction to a fine of $5000, or imprisonment for three months, or both”. Despite this fact, family members of persons who died in private institutions question whether all deaths have been reported.
One such family showed The Tribune a letter from Chief Medical Officer Merceline Dahl-Regis admitting that a private facility failed to report the death of their family member.
According to the family, the facility in question has nevertheless had its licence renewed by the HHFLB.
Mr Gomez told The Tribune that no healthcare facility has ever been denied a licence since the board’s inception in 1998.
By KAHMILE REID, The Tribune
