CORBETT Price - the man in charge of the health consultants temporarily managing King Edward VII Memorial Hospital - "is to health care what Osama bin Laden is to tranquillity", according to a former US hospital administrator who has seen his methods first hand.

Steve Villano, who resigned as vice-president of New York-based Episcopal Health Services in 1999 after Mr. Price's company Kurron Shares of America had been brought in to turn round their poor financial situation, said if Mr. Price had any say in the hospital's future, he posed "a threat to the standard of health care in Bermuda".

Health Minister Nelson Bascome said this week that Kurron, a health management and consultancy firm, would be managing both King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and St. Brendan's Hospital for a month, before they put forward strategies for improving the running of both hospitals in the future.

Staff at the Paget hospital have become aware of Kurron's track record of improving the finances of struggling hospitals by cutting jobs and services - and they are concerned, according to Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU) leader Ed Ball.

Mr. Ball added that some of his members at the hospital were due to be questioned by Kurron staff between Wednesday and Friday of next week.

"The BPSU have had many calls from members who say they are reluctant to give interviews to this company because of what they have learned about the company's track record," said Mr. Ball.

"As a result of that, I would like to speak to the chairman of the Bermuda Hospitals Board (Jonathan Brewin) to see if he's aware of this before we consent to our members talking to Kurron.

"Staff have seen information about Kurron on the Internet and they have made calls to friends who work in institutions where Kurron had been brought in.

"It has been brought to our attention that in some hospitals where Kurron was brought in, certain aspects have suffered, such as health care and employment relations.

"The reports have not been favourable at all and that has been going round the hospital fellowship and people are voicing concern. This is only putting added pressure on the administration and the board."

He added that his members were utterly opposed to the idea of cuts. "We can't go through another series of stresses on professionals who are tring to give the best they can to provide a high standard of health care in Bermuda," said Mr. Ball.

"We are the only hospital for 800 miles and we don't want any cuts, shortages and the like."

Mr. Ball said that Mr. Bascome's announcement in the House this week that Kurron was now managing the hospitals had come as a "complete surprise". He had been aware the American company had come in only on a consulting basis beforehand.

Efforts to contact Mr. Bascome yesterday were unsuccessful.

Three different sources suggested to the Mid-Ocean News that Transport Minister and practising physician Dr. Ewart Brown was a friend of Mr. Price.

Asked yesterday if that were true, Dr. Brown said: "Yes, he's a friend of mine now, but not before (Kurron were brought in). We had never met before that."

And Dr. Brown said rumours that Mr. Price had been staying at his home were "incorrect".

We contacted the New York office of Kurron Shares of America and were told that Mr. Price was travelling and unavailable for comment.

Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley expressed concern that Mr. Bascome had not announced what Kurron would be paid and suggested the recruitment of the consultants had "come out of the blue".

The Mid-Ocean News has learned that Mr. Price has been criticised in the past for a "slash and burn" style which has seen him cut jobs and allegedly put the bottom line before patient care.

Mr. Villano, who worked in state government and medical administration in New York for 16 years, warned yesterday: "If health care in Bermuda has been something for the country to be proud of, then the people of Bermuda could be in a shock with Mr. Price around. He has a take-no-prisoners philosophy. He comes in, makes wholesale cuts and leaves a lot of wreckage in his aftermath."

Mr. Villano resigned as vice-president of Episcopal Health Services (EHS), an organisation running several hospitals in the New York City area, because he objected to Mr. Price being brought in.

Within a month, Mr. Price announced 258 job cuts and after four months, EPS filed for bankruptcy protection, owing $150 million in unsecured debt and losing $3 million a month.

At the time, according to US Bankruptcy Court papers, two Kurron officials were earning a combined $450 per hour - or $1 million a year - from their work at EPS, sparking anger among staff who described the payments as "obscene".

Mr. Price was balancing his responsibilities at EPS with a second full-time job, as CEO of the Interfaith Medical Centre in Brooklyn.

At Interfaith, which was losing about $25 million a year when Mr. Price took over in 1991, he eventually turned huge losses into small profits by a process which included making 500 lay-offs and setting freezes on salaries and benefits.

By June, 2001, EPS debts had been reduced to $40 million. But Mr. Villano said the way it had been done did not go down well.

"It's easy to improve the financial situation when you sell half of it away - and that's what Mr. Price did," said Mr. Villano, who is now executive director of US national AIDS awareness organisation Cable Positive.

"It did not go down well with the staff, with the community, nor with the press." The Mid-Ocean News also approached Anthony Kovner, a professor of health policy and management at New York University.

Professor Kovner, an expert on hospital governance who is familiar with Mr. Price's work in the New York area, said yesterday: "I think your taxpayers have something to worry about. Mr. Price is more a salesman than an expert."

Kurron was also signed up to help turn around the fortunes of DC General Hospital in 1994, which had at the time an operating deficit of $26 million despite a city subsidy of $59 million.

Mr. Price spent a few months there, produced a report and was paid $600,000. According to the Washington Post, "the $600,000 paid to Kurron became part of the hospital's deficit".

Mr. Dunkley said yesterday: "I was very concerned about the arrangement between Kurron and the hospital and the way it just came out of the blue.

"That suggests to me that either there is something fishy going on, or that, as has been proven again, the Government has lost its way, is incapable of making difficult decisions and is looking for someone else to hold their hand to lead them up the garden path.

"I was also concerned that the Minister (Nelson Bascome) said the other day that he didn't know how much it would cost. We should know beforehand how much it will cost. If you give consultants an opening they will open up a Grand Canyon.

"As part of the effective running of a large business, you need to have procedures - controls, checks and balances.

"We have seen what happens when those are lost with the events at the Bermuda Housing Corporation.

"With us on the brink in terms of health care, we need to do the right things to make our hospital excellent, and it can be done. But we shouldn't be allowing more consultants take money from us."

At the end of last year, it was announced that current hospital CEO Stephanie Reid would be staying on for an extra year, on top of her original three-year contract, while a Bermudian was trained to take her post. The name of the new CEO has not yet been announced.