Doctors threaten to 'withdraw services' at PMH

Wed, Nov 23rd 2016, 02:45 PM

President of the Consultant Physician Staff Association (CPSA) Dr. Locksley Munroe yesterday expressed concern that consulting staff at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) "may resign or withdraw their services from the hospital" following the resignation of former Medical Chief of Staff Dr. James Johnson.

Johnson submitted his resignation to Managing Director of the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) Herbert Brown yesterday afternoon.

According to Johnson, he resigned because Brown displayed that he "no longer had confidence in my office".

Johnson's resignation has left mixed emotions among members of the CPSA, which consists of nearly 100 of PMH's senior doctors.

The CPSA president said if the doctors follow through with their plans to "stand in solidarity" with Johnson, it could pose a "major issue" regarding the operation of the hospital.

"I think people should be free to do what they feel is the right thing to do," Munroe told The Nassau Guardian.

"But it will have a serious, serious impact on patient care if the consulting staff decides to withhold services.

"It won't be a joke at all to the Bahamian people.

"We need those doctors.

"There are over 100 consultants all in all, and about 90 of them are members of CPSA.

"...I think it is a serious threat.

"If you listen to them, you can hear that they are going to express their dislike for the way the situation was handled."

The situation Munroe was referring to was allegedly a decision made by Brown back in March to hire two Indian ophthalmologists as consultants at the hospital as opposed to hiring them as senior registrars as advised by Johnson and other CPSA members.

Johnson said Brown decided to give the foreigners a higher position without consulting him and it showed that he no longer trusted his advice.

"...Somewhere along the line the managing director decided to change their status to consultant," said Johnson.

"It would have created more problems for us in terms of ensuring that they are available to look after the public patients, which is the main reason we are recruiting them.

"It was changed without me being consulted or told.

"So I wrote the managing director and he said that he has the right to override any decision I made if he so chooses to.

"He is right. He can. But traditionally, whatever is recommended by the Medical Advisory Committee (of which Johnson is the chairman) is followed through by the medical advisement staff.

"That was the major issue among other minor problems.

"We couldn't see eye to eye on that.

"One of us had to go and I can only make the decision for myself.

"I told him he seems to have lost confidence in my office and I feel like I should vacate the office so that he can find someone he has confidence in."

Munroe said he does not know how soon doctors plan to take action but assured that most of them are "very angry" and have vowed to stand by Johnson.

"The only thing we are asking him [Brown] to do is respect and honor the position of the medical chief of staff," said Munroe.

"All we are asking him to do is respect that position because the people who know most about medical affairs are the doctors, so you need to respect what their input is.

"They have the PHA like only their input matters.

"That is where the problem comes from.

"When Johnson made a recommendation, they ignored it.

"If he can ignore the medical chief of staff, he can very well ignore any one of us and run over us.

"We don't want that."

Brown told The Nassau Guardian last night that he would be prepared to speak to the issue today.

Jayme C. Pinder, Guardian Staff Reporter

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian

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