Shadow Minister demands answers on KEMH executives’ end-of-year bonuses
Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson raised concerns about end-of-year bonuses allegedly paid to hospital executives during Friday’s Motion to Adjourn in the House of Assembly.Mrs Jackson questioned payments to senior administrators at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH), which she believes were up to 25 percent on top of their annual salaries.“I’d like to know the salaries of the CEO, Chief of Staff and the Deputy,” said Mrs Jackson. “I understand one of the administrators of the hospital makes more than the Premier.”Answers to her questions were not forthcoming from Minister of Health Zane DeSilva during the debate.However, Mrs Jackson added to her concerns in a telephone call to this newspaper yesterday, saying if the news was correct, the bonuses were inappropriate in a climate of economic austerity when many Bermudians are unemployed.She was unable to state how many executives received bonuses, but said she’d heard the news from “a pretty good source” and it involved “several” members of the hospital administration. Some are understood to have been paid 25 percent on top of their salaries while others got 15 percent.“Unfortunately the exact nature of these agreements have not been made public although KEMH as a Government-funded quango should show financial transparency,” she said.Mrs Jackson’s United Bermuda Party colleague Cole Simons chimed in with similar concerns during the Motion to Adjourn.“We cannot treat executives as if they’re working for a private hospital like Harley Street in London or New York. We’re a community hospital and we have to take fiscal responsibility,” he said.Mrs. Jackson also repeated questions regarding renovations to three wards at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute called the Fairview Court building.The cost of the project as of May 2010 was $6 million according to the then Health Minister Walter Roban. A third of that bill was footed by the Bermuda Hospitals Board and the rest by Government.On Friday, Mrs Jackson said she was still seeking answers on the final cost, as no information has been shared since.More health-related concerns were raised by Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons in response to recent media coverage of the plight of Bermuda’s overweight children. Dr Gibbons expressed his dismay over reports that physical education lessons in schools are being scaled back.However, more upbeat news about schools was shared by backbencher Wayne Perinchief who said he was “very impressed” with a science and academic fair he attended at the Bermuda Institute on Thursday evening.