$35m risk!

Declaring that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is not a shop where decisions can be made willy nilly, the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) warns that the $35 million cut to the institution’s funding will undermine quality health care and can put lives at risks.
BAMP president Dr Carlos Chase is therefore calling on Government to clearly state whether it wants services or staff cut from the hospital, and what its vision is for health care. 
Chase said the cut announced by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler in this year’s Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals as part of Government’s austerity programme, would make an already bad situation at the QEH worse.
He said, for example, last Thursday elective surgeries were cancelled because there were no blood testing kits available. These kits are used for testing if patients getting surgeries have HIV, syphilis or other sexually transmitted diseases.