Return to talks!

INDUSTRIAL ACTION remains suspended but the impasse between this country’s physicians and the board of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is far from over.Minister of Health Donville Inniss yesterday urged the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) and the QEH board to return to the negotiating table.The plea was made after he met separately with both parties. Inniss had discussions with the board in the morning and BAMP in the afternoon.BAMP, who started industrial action on Friday after the board’s decision to terminate the contract of consultant radiologist Dr Cecil Rambarat, has scheduled an emergency meeting for this morning at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s Auditorium at 9:30.Inniss said that the interests of patients must remain at the centre of efforts to make major improvements in the public and private health care system.He stressed that he had full confidence in chairman Reverend Guy Hewitt and the QEH board and urged both sides to continue to discuss issues and to reach an amicable solution.Both parties have been tight-lipped on the specifics of yesterday’s meetings.There have been concerns over the tardiness in getting X-ray reports from the Department of Radiology, headed by Rambarat.Head of the Accident & Emergency Department, Dr Chaynie Williams, as well as head of the Department of Orthopaedics, Dr Randy Carrington, both complained that the lack of timeliness by Rambarat’s department had been affecting patient care.Hewitt has stressed that management is attempting to make the hospital patient-driven as opposed to doctor-driven. (MK)