By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Doctors Union President Melisande S Bassett yesterday led practitioners in a walk-out at the Princess Margaret Hospital over persisting issues between the group and senior health officials.

"Our heads have been bruised, we are bloodied, beaten; but we will not bend," was how Dr Bassett characterized the plight of doctors at health facilities across the country.

The PHA yesterday issued a press release extending to the BDU an invitation to meet to discuss issues. The PHA press release noted an invitation had also been extended last month when the two groups met to welcome the union's new slate of officers.

Stopping short of calling for major industrial action yesterday morning, Dr Bassett said practitioners are on the brink and are tired of being forced to work through severe conditions.

Backed by rows of doctors, nurses and other unionists holding plaque cards which detailed the various issues being faced in the health sector, Dr Bassett contended that for years, medical personnel have been marginalised, mistreated and abused.

She said despite the treatment, doctors have persevered primarily because of their respective honour and oaths.

However, she insisted that the time had come to speak out and address the many issues that have gone unchecked for decades.

"Today we just ask that the marginalisation and the misalignment of the doctors, the illegal practices be stopped," she said.

Among the issues being challenged are the government and Public Hospitals Authority's refusal to honour maternity benefits, overtime pay, holiday pay, work duration agreements, licensing and registration protocols and address several longstanding adverse working conditions.

Referring to the grievances yesterday, Dr Bassett insisted the "systematic discrimination" needed to be immediately addressed.

"Why is it that any employer, much less the government, is allowed to refuse to pay double pay or double time for persons that work on holidays?" she asked.

"For as far as our records go back, doctors have not been paid for holiday. They have not been given holiday pay."

She continued: "In 2014, we had an agreement, signed an agreement that has yet to be recognised in totality for doctors to be paid for holiday work. The double pay that every citizen in the Bahamas is afforded."

"That has not been done."

Dr Bassett said: "Why is it that any employer, much less the government, much less the Public Hospitals Authority, refuses to pay its female doctors for maternity leave?"

"Why do we have to take you to court to get you to pay these doctors who go on maternity leave?

"That is a benefit for all Bahamians. We should not have to fight you on that at every turn.

"Despite taking you to the Labour Board, despite getting victories in some areas; we are still begging you to honour the law in that regard."

Addressing concerns over the licensing and registration of junior doctors, Dr Bassett said the entire process needed to be revisited and reexamined because it doesn't fairly assess applicants.

Additionally, she said the process doesn't adequately address the decisions behind why some practitioners are rejected, while others are contracted.

Issues

Addressing other outstanding issues, Dr Bassett added: "Why is It that successive governments have failed to provide a proper on-call suite for doctors in Grand Bahama?"

"They sleep on recliners, couches and this has been for years; in a room where the stench of the sewer is stifling.

"We have asked, we have sat at the table and asked for these issues to be addressed. They have not."

"We are at the point where we are losing doctors daily because foreign entities are picking them up," she said.

"Right now Grand Bahama has just lost five of its doctors in one month because we are being marginalised and mistreated."

She continued: "We ask that you sit with us, talk with us sensibly, truthfully, honestly and deal with these simple issues that no Bahamian worker, whether they are employed for a private entity, much less the government, should have to face."

Bahamas Nurses Union President Amancha Williams, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr Bassett and the BDU, yesterday urged the Minnis administration to "get it right."

Ms Williams said their organisations are taking a stand because the country depends on them.

"…. The health of the nation is the wealth of the nation. Poor health, poor nation. You have the nurses and the doctors together. I don't think that's good. But, hey, we are standing together."

Less than an hour after the BDU publicly aired its grievances, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands responded to reporters outside of Parliament.

Dr Sands said the government has always been willing to sit down with representatives of the union and discuss the various concerns.

Speaking specifically to the issues with Critical Care block's cooling system, Dr Sands agreed that the issue had now become a "vexing problem," but insisted that it is being addressed.

"Just over the weekend we would have had a consultant come down to assess the cooling system," he told reporters, "and what we have found is that there is a number of challenges with the sensors and controls that caused a number of the compressors attached to the chiller systems to kick out."

He continued: "Just to give you a very simple idea of the challenge, the critical care block was brought online in 2014, and there are four major chillers, each of which provides just under 200-tons of air-conditioning capacity."

Dr Sands said the assessment of the system also revealed that many of the compressors and chillers were not functioning anywhere near capacity, despite the fact that a brand new chiller was installed just under a year ago.

An issue he said could not be fixed by any local team.

"Once we had the representative come in, they were able to get a number of the compressors and the chillers online and I am happy to report that since the weekend, the temperature in the Critical Care block has been comfortably at 70 degrees, which is the ideal working condition, 69, 70 degrees.

"We do acknowledge, however, that there is a serious problem with the existing chillers that have lost their useful life and the Public Hospitals Authority and PMH is going to have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, additionally, for sensors and new chillers.

"We believe that we have enough capacity on stream now to allow us the time to order, import and install the added equipment, as well as the appropriate monitoring system," Dr Sands said.

On the issue of the registration and licensing of junior doctors, Dr Sands asserted that matter was entirely under the purview of the Medical Council of the Bahamas, an entity he said, that could not be dictated to by the government.

"There are differences in licensing requirements depending not on the status or standing of the (practitioners). You have interns, you have junior doctors, SHOs, registrars; then you have senior registrars, consultants, generalists and specialists," Dr Sands said.

"Every year, the license of a physician has to be renewed, but for those people going from intern to the next level, all considered to be provisional licensees, there is a requirement when you transition from intern into SHO, that a certain application be filled out with references.

"The Bahamas Medical Council is entirely able to define what is an acceptable referee and they have raised some concerns," he said.

Minister

"Bear in mind that the statutory powers of the council are not to be interfered with. And so, the minister cannot dictate to the council whether they feel someone is a fit and proper person to be licensed and registered.

"If individuals are grieved, they have the ability to go to the courts to go and get that resolved," he added.

Meanwhile, on the topic of maternity leave, Dr Sands said the Public Hospital Authority (PHA), which has oversight for the provision, is a part of the Ministry of Health and as such, conforms to the laws of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

Additionally, Dr Sands said junior doctors have major medical insurance paid for and provided by the PHA.

To that end, he said there may be some specific issues that the BDA wishes to see differently, with respect to the terms of maternity benefit.

"I understand," he told reporters. "I am informed that this matter has been discussed and some resolution had been obtained. I don't wish to say anything further because there may be some particular issues that we have not covered."