Health commission member defends new hospital authority bill

Member of the National Health Commission, Eliud Williams is defending the Dominica Hospital Authority Bill stating that its intentions don’t include putting professional workers out of a job.

Williams was speaking as a guest on the latest edition of Prime Minister Skerrit’s Anou Palay Programme.

The National Health Commission has denied that the Dominica Hospital Authority Bill will compromise the tenure of health practitioners.

Plans are in place to review systems and procedures at the Dominica-China Friendship Hospital. A Hospital Authority Bill for the establishment of a Chief Executive Officer is expected to go to Parliament for debate in September.

However, the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU) which represents health workers, met with health workers recently after a meeting with the Health Commission and according to DPSU General Secretary, Thomas Letang, the workers were of the view that the bill, in the form it is being recommended, has a lot of negative implications for them. They were therefore, asking the government to not rush the bill and to provide more time for them to study it before submitting their recommendations. Another concern of the members was the fact that new or non-appointed persons at the hospital will now be placed on a three year contract which the members feel is not the way to improve efficiency and performance in the public service.

But Health Commission member Williams has a different point of view.

“Clearly it is never the intention to put professional workers out of work; I don’t know how this is possible,” Williams  said. “We are saying we’ve been spending time looking at the comments during consultations, we have compiled them and we are quite opened, absolutely and to look again at the issues of this contract and to see how perhaps we could do it differently to link.”

According to Williams, very importantly, the issue of having professionals stay on the cutting edge of their profession was not something ever spoken about within the hospital healthcare delivery system.

“We are saying in the new arrangements that have to be and we are open to suggestions,” he stated.

He said the purpose of consulting is to have improvement and the commission needs to hear from as many stakeholders as possible.

“We are saying, we are going to continue talking, we are going to continue engaging, but if the first thing we hear is postpone, delay, we are saying let’s keep talking,” he stated…“If we get to that point where we need a few more weeks, by all means, but you do not start by saying let’s postpone.”

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8 Comments

  1. joseph charles
    October 1, 2020

    hungry hyenas!!

  2. Truth Be Told
    October 1, 2020

    Wow! One thing the cronyism and nepotism in this country is not even pretentious or subtle. The same jacks recycled into every position and opportunity over and over have nothing new to offer for the advancement of the country! Poor Dominica!

  3. RastarMarn
    October 1, 2020

    RastarMarn Doh like dat nuh,,, So check this out and RastarMatn Doh have clout is just here RastarMarn can come make some noise so check this out:

    A chief executive officer (CEO),[1] or just chief executive (CE), is the most senior corporate, executive, or administrative officer in charge of managing an organization – especially an independent legal entity,,,

    So all well and good for mista to come talking like the Crony he is but since when the Hospital became a corporation for them to be setting up CEO nuh???

    See dat Freeniss is Worryniss, RastarMarn sure allyou didn’t see it when dem ChinaMan dem was building and opening and all of dem dere skinning up their teeth in allyou face,,,

    See now RastarMarn sure is one of them ChinaMan dem dat own the hospital now and is looking for their return on investment,,,

    Ever wonder why those ChinaMan company bringing their own laborers like Dominica doh have enough YoungMan dat need work to do,,,

  4. Ibo France
    September 30, 2020

    Anybody who works closely with the despotic Skerrit led autocracy CANNOT be a good nor decent person. I say this without any fear of contradiction. The despot and his Cabinet of cheerleaders have handcuffed themselves to corruption, greed, lies, selfishness, immorality, wickedness, inhumanity, divisiveness, coarseness, conceit, stupidity, illegality,and despotism just to name a few vices.

    Mr. Eliud Williams is just another spineless , unethical water carrier for the most corrupt ‘prime minister’ in the Caribbean. He sings melodiously well, like a Sparrow,to keep this newly created appointment.

    Nurses under siege

    • VereTere
      October 1, 2020

      I do agree with you. The minute they get involved with Skerrit is the minute all decency goes out of the window and they sing his tune without hesitation!

  5. Sixty four thousand per month
    September 30, 2020

    Will the many doctors that Skerrit (the government), has discriminated against, be allowed to practice their profession, after this Hospital Authority Bill is read and adopted?
    Iñ a poor underdeveloped, poverty stricken country like Dominica, i find it utterly infuriating and vexing that one man, because of his nasty political games, can keep professionals away from delivering health services to the poor people he bribe every five years to vote for him, so that he can steal elections!
    Does he have a conscience, or has it fled to brutish beast?
    Mr Williams i live in Dominica and under this DLP regime, people have always been told one thing, and get something totally different. So don’t try to play in my head!

  6. Original
    September 30, 2020

    so we are presently living in a society where everything is fine and there is no discussion about the ills, the persons who have been entrusted to safe guard the betterment of all have sold out for a few pennies, losing their dignity in the process.

  7. Davidson Valerie
    September 30, 2020

    let us take a look at where this present administration has implemented this concept before and the outcome of such administration, which is the public works, which was converted to the public works corporation, being governed by a board.

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