Row breaks out over hospital staffing plans
King Edward VII Memorial Hospital has denied claims by a senior government MP that it is making eight staff redundant in June.
Derrick Burgess, Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, told MPs he had been informed people were being laid off and accused hospital managers of “cruelty” for targeting low-paid workers while keeping on senior staff who earn more than $500,000.
However, the Bermuda Hospitals Board insisted that there were no planned redundancies although its health information management services unit would be reduced from 19 people to 14 through the end of part-time and temporary contracts and retirement.
The BHB said redundancy would be an option if staff refused redeployment, or a new role within the organisation.
The comments come after the BHB warned it would struggle to maintain its facilities or to pay a basic cost-of-living increase to its staff because government funding was not keeping up with medical inflation.
The BHB, which is $16 million short of the funds promised by the Government in 2019, said even if the Government made good the shortfall, failures to increase the spending cap meant it had received a single one per cent increase in five years.
Mr Burgess told MPs: “I got a call from a very distraught parent who told me that at the hospital eight workers were being made redundant.
“These workers are due to be made redundant in June, I am being told. These workers are probably making about $50,000 to $60,000 a year.
“So, they need every penny that they earn in order to live – I won’t even say comfortably – because $60,000 a year for a single household is really no money.
“What concerns me is that we have workers at that establishment making $500,000-plus.
“So, we are going to get rid of eight workers in order to keep one high-paid individual.
“And, now these folk who sit in high places get rid of eight workers. I am appalled at that.”
He added: “I call on the Bermuda Hospitals Board … the ministry ... to get in there and save these workers because they were told that there would be no cuts.
“How cruel can people be in a time when we are coming out of the pandemic?”
Health workers cannot be repeatedly “short-changed” because of inadequate government funding and failures by hospital bosses to manage budgets, the Bermuda Public Services Union has said.
Armell Thomas, the organisation’s president, expressed “grave concern” about a warning from the Bermuda Hospitals Board that it would find it hard to pay a basic cost-of-living increase to its staff because government funding was not keeping up with medical inflation.
Mr Thomas said: “This statement was particularly disturbing given the significant sacrifices that BPSU members employed by the BHB have made throughout the Covid pandemic.
“BHB employees cannot continually be short-changed due to inadequate government funding and BHB’s failure to properly manage its budget.
“The health of Bermuda depends on the adequate funding for healthcare; it is essential that BHB and the Bermuda Government get this right.
“In a recent statement made in the House of Assembly, the Minister of Health, Kim Wilson, highlighted a savings programme that was initiated by BHB in 2018.
“The minister reported that as a result of this initiative, BHB saved approximately $23 million per year. This equated to a 7 per cent savings in the BHB budget.
“It is important for both the BHB and the Government to recognise that a significant part of this savings came as a result of BPSU members agreeing to forego any increase in salaries for 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22.
“Our hard-working, dedicated BHB members were willing to make this sacrifice despite the corresponding increases in the cost of living of one per cent for 2019, 1.5 per cent for 2021 and 4.9 per cent for quarter three 2022.
“As the BPSU begins preparations for the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations with the BHB, the union assures its members that it will remain steadfast in its commitment to advocate for a fair salary uplift.”
The BHB has been asked to respond to the comments.
Mr Burgess said the workers he had been told would be impacted believed the action was due to the introduction of a new electronic system at the hospital.
He said: “Those workers, as they understand, are being let go because of the new system they are putting down the hospital, the digital system.
“We shouldn’t be putting in systems that get rid of people. We should try to move those people around.”
A BHB spokeswoman said that Mr Burgess was incorrect.
The spokeswoman stated: “BHB can confirm that it has not told eight people that they are being made redundant in June.
“We believe the comments relate to our health information management services department, which manages our medical records.
“This department, like most of BHB, is modernising as we transition to our first organisation-wide electronic medical record.
“The transition from paper-based to electronic medical records is helping us improve the delivery of patient care and it’s an exciting time as we are able to modernise services and meet international standards of care.
“As the HIMS department will now be supporting electronic rather than paper records, the type of work undertaken is changing.
“BHB has been working with the union to ensure that a training programme is offered to existing staff to prepare them for new roles that will be advertised within BHB in the coming months.
“BHB is both respectful and sensitive to the needs of its staff and will make every attempt to redeploy staff to other BHB positions for which they are qualified, if they are unsuccessful in securing one of the new roles.
“Although we anticipate the overall headcount within HIMS will trend down from the current number of 19 to 14, this is factoring in people currently in the department on limited-time/temporary contracts and those who are close to or passed retirement.
“The reduction within HIMS also includes a role that will remain at BHB, but is transferring to a different department.
“We have fantastic HIMS staff and so are confident that the training and development will prepare them well for the new roles.
“Only should a staff member not take up a new role or redeployment, would redundancy be an option. Whatever path they eventually decide on we will support staff fully through the process.”
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