LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Health Services Authority Chairman responds

Friday, March 4, 2005

Dear Sir,

A front-page article appearing in the Cayman Net News on Friday, February 25 with the headline “HSA in disarray” contains certain inaccuracies and a level of sensational journalism, which warrants a response.

It is the general policy of the Health Services Authority (HSA) not to respond to sensational media reports which have blatant disregard for facts; however the article carried by the Cayman Net News on February 25 necessitates a response. 

As the article may be misinterpreted by some, it is important to reassure everyone that the quality of care at the HSA is uncompromised. The HSA is committed to providing the highest standard of care, to all patients, and has a team of competent, highly trained and experienced professionals in various disciplines dedicated to ensuring the optimisation of each patient’s health, comfort and satisfaction, while under our care. The Board, management and staff of the Authority remain committed to our pursuit of excellence in the delivery of patient care in all our facilities. The many responses received from patients daily confirm that the quality of care offered by our outstanding team of professionals is comparable and in many cases exceed care offered elsewhere.

The staff of the Health Services Authority takes pride in providing high quality care to the people of these islands and will continue to do so despite sensational and biased reporting.

According to the article “as many as 35 key people have left or resigned from the Authority in the last few months including surgeons, cardiologists, accident and emergency specialists, nurses and administrative staff”. The HSA values its staff and considers all staff of the authority, at every level, as “key people” in the delivery of healthcare.

While there have been resignations from the Authority in recent months, this is not unusual and unique to the HSA as many other local entities, including the civil service, have lost staff since Hurricane Ivan. In the aftermath of the hurricane the HSA has and continues to provide all available resources to retain our employees. The Authority cannot, however, prevent staff who chose to exercise their option of leaving these islands. For many of these employees, their decision to leave is largely external to the HSA, including the lack of available housing; increased rental costs and lack of jobs for their spouses.

For the most part, overseas staff of the Health Services Authority are given two-year contracts, as is the case with all most overseas staff employed by the government. These employees have the option at the end of their tenure to request renewal of their contracts or return to their place of origin. The Health Services Authority has been able to attract a diverse group of healthcare professionals from more than twenty countries to its team. This speaks volumes about the quality of our work environment and our ability to attract the best professionals. It is a credit to the Authority that it is able to retain most of these employees for further service. 

In spite of the global shortage of healthcare professionals the Health Services Authority has been able to attract and retain some of the best-qualified, competent and skilled professionals in these islands. It is unfortunate that unfounded reporting by the Cayman Net News may impede the strides we have made over the years and create low morale in the organization. However, to the credit of the super staff at the Authority who are able to distinguish between true reporting and sensational journalism, they are not distracted by such baseless reporting but remain focused on their commitment to providing high quality care. 

The claim that employees “are to face a pay cut” is baseless. The Board of the Health Services Authority has not authorized any “pay cuts” for staff and contrary to the report has undertaken a complete salary review for staff at all levels. In fact, salary increases have already been granted for one group of employees. This process will be on-going and the HSA will shortly be implementing a system of performance-based increases for all staff.

According to the Cayman Net News report, “a good deal of resentment has been growing among staff since the hurricane in particular when employees were encouraged to fill in assistance forms if they were not insured, only to be told shortly before the Christmas holiday they would not be receiving any assistance as they were not government employees.”

The baseless and unsubstantiated reporting further heightens the lack of credibility in the publication. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, the Health Services provided assistance to all employees including assistance with housing accommodation, food, transportation, time away from work for recovery and provision of relief supplies. The Health Services Authority, like all other statutory authorities, was not included in the government’s allocation of $5m to civil servants. The HSA made several representations for its staff to be considered for the loan assistance programme but given the limited funds and vast number of civil servants who opted for this programme of assistance, the government advised that all Authorities, including the HSA, would need to establish their own arrangement and this was communicated to staff.

The Cayman Net News report further stated that “this coupled with the lack of bonus for health workers compared to civil servants has further heightened resentment.” The Financial Secretary has advised there was no bonus paid to civil servants and again points to the lack of credibility and accuracy of your reporting. Some civil servants did receive “rewards for extra-ordinary performance during and post Hurricane Ivan”. However, annual increments have been “frozen” since 2002.

The lack of facts and speculative nature of the Cayman Net News reporting is borne out even further by the statement that the Cayman Islands Hospital was refurbished in the mid nineties at a cost of around $50m. After several studies including a needs assessment for the healthcare of these islands the new Cayman Islands Hospital was built at its current site in George Town. The facility, built to world-class standards was opened in 1999 and is a mark of visionary leadership and strategic planning by the Health Services. 

Stephen Scott
Chairman, Health Services Authority

Editors note:

We are grateful to Mr Scott for his response to our recent article, however we believe the article was neither inaccurate nor sensational. There were many reliable sources used. It is unfortunate that Mr Scott failed to respond to our original questions in full, even though the Ministry of Health had our submissions for more than ten days prior to going to press. 

He has also failed to address many of the specific points raised in our article, (25 February) in his letter published above. 

For example while he denies any pay cut is planned, he does not address the de facto pay reduction that has already occurred due to the increased contributions employees are now forced to pay to their pensions, after the HSA reduced its contributions.

He also fails to clarify the issue of ‘key staff’. In his letter he insists that all staff are ‘key’ yet in his and the Ministry’s response to our questions regarding the numerous resignations he said; “No key hospital personnel have resigned,” when it is common knowledge that many people have done so in recent months.

Nor does Mr Scott acknowledge that in the period of change from a Department to an Authority more than one hundred people were reportedly made redundant. There are many other issues that were brought to our attention to us concerning the HSA, which we will continue to investigate and bring to the attention of our readers as and when we are satisfied with the results of our research.

Our purpose in publishing this article was not as he claims - for the purpose of sensationalising - but to respond to the overwhelming reports that we have continued to receive of problems at the Hospital and throughout the HSA.

It is also important to note that the questions we posed to the Authority remained unanswered after daily chasing and it was not until we informed Hon Gilbert McLean’s secretary that we would be running the article with the facts as we knew them to be, according to numerous reports from current and former HSA employees, that the answers were finally relayed to our assignments editor.

It is also worthy of note at this time that despite the current concerns surrounding the administration of the Cayman Islands Hospital and the HSA, the Government has expressed an interest in spending more money on acquiring the privately owned Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital recently. 

It is the duty of all responsible media to ask questions and raise the issues that affect the people within its community and Cayman Net News will continue to do so without fear or favour.

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