Letter of the Day | UHWI can’t afford to drift from crisis to crisis

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The Gleaner’s editorial of Friday, January 16, on the troubling findings at The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), rightly captures the frustration and disappointment felt by many who expect integrity, transparency, and accountability in the management of a critical public health institution.

The editorial is particularly important for recalling the fate of former chairman Wayne Chai Chong, whose departure now appears less about “personality conflicts” and more about resistance to reform. His claims of pushback against efforts to strengthen governance, address suspected fraud, and improve operational efficiency are disturbingly consistent with what the auditor general has since uncovered. Jamaica has a poor record of punishing messengers rather than confronting uncomfortable truths, and the UHWI seems to fit that unfortunate pattern.

While the current board of governors has pledged reform, its response has been neither sufficiently robust nor sufficiently transparent to rebuild public trust. Assertions that corrective measures were already under way before the audit was tabled ring hollow when set against the scale and duration of the failures identified. Quiet internal adjustments are not enough when hundreds of millions of dollars of public resources are implicated. Stakeholders, including staff and taxpayers, deserve clear evidence of change, not reassurances after the fact.

Against this background, Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton’s decision to appoint a parallel oversight committee is understandable, but it also raises serious concerns. Two bodies ostensibly doing the same work, with unclear lines of authority and accountability, risk confusion, duplication, and inertia. If the minister lacks confidence in the existing board, that issue should be confronted directly. Effective governance requires clarity, not overlapping mandates that may ultimately shield responsibility rather than enforce it.

The minister should clearly define who is in charge of reform at the UHWI, establish firm timelines for implementation, and ensure that findings of wrongdoing are referred for investigation without fear or favour. Procurement systems must be overhauled, exemptions tightly controlled, and management held to measurable standards of performance. Above all, the culture that resists scrutiny must be dismantled.

The taxpayers deserve better. The UHWI is too important to Jamaica’s health system to be allowed to drift from crisis to crisis.

ROBERT DALLEY