Shake-up ahead for underperforming hospital management

FORT CHARLOTTE, Hanover — Strong action will be taken against the management teams of non-performing public health institutions warns Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton following a national patient complaints report showing that long wait times remain a primary grievance across the island’s hospital network. “I am just giving a notice that we are going to be taking stronger action around throughput and the quality of throughput, and Noel Holmes is not going to be an exception. All institutions are going to have that,” stated Tufton during a press conference at the Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover on Friday afternoon. Before the press briefing, the minister toured the Type-C facility, which is currently being rehabilitated following Hurricane Melissa last October. During the tour, several patients raised concerns about lengthy wait times.

“Coming here and hearing that five people are waiting at an outpatient area from 9:30 or 10:00 this morning until 12:00, and the doctor has not yet seen the patient — the five or six people — not a good thing. Nobody should wait three or four hours and you haven’t seen one patient yet. Sorry. We are going to have to call these things out when they happen,” stated Tufton. The minister highlighted that staff numbers at Noel Holmes Hospital increased significantly from 189 before the hurricane to 270, including specialist doctors. He stressed that this expanded workforce must translate into enhanced service delivery, improved throughput, and shorter wait times. Moving forward, the ministry will closely evaluate staff counts against productivity and patient throughput across the entire public health sector. Tufton added that the recently completed national patient complaints report will be released publicly within three…