Trust us, says QEH board doc

A SENIOR MEDICAL OFFICIAL has urged doctors to trust Government’s policy direction on health care.Dr Irvine Branker, a member of the board of management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), said in a statement last night that the board’s major concern was the pursuit of the implementation of a patient-centred model of health care. Branker, a former medical consultant, advised doctors that what the board was seeking to implement was in the best interest of the widest cross section of Barbados and to their collective benefit.Branker, who is also a university lecturer and head of department at the QEH, also sought to put to rest a rumour circulating among the medical fraternity.“A vicious and completely unfounded rumour appears to be circulating among parts [of] the medical fraternity that the board of the QEH has in its possession a list of specific medical practitioners employed at the QEH that it wishes to terminate. I wish to state categorically that this is an untruth,” he said.Branker added: “I want to assure my colleagues in the medical fraternity that the QEH board has no individual, personal, political or ulterior motives to the termination of any contract. “Our only concern has been to work towards the effective management of clinical services and the provision of the best possible hospital care to the people of Barbados. Each contract is and will be determined on its own merit.”Branker said though some might be anxious because of recent actions by the board, he wanted to assure them that as a committed medical practitioner he would not be party to any actions that were prejudicial to the medical profession in general or any doctor in particular. (PR/WG)