Dr Ferguson doctoring the truth

By George Davis

The health minister, Dr Fenton Rudyard Ignatius Ferguson, is a thoroughly decent man. As the country's 11th minister of health, Dr Ferguson has rarely, if ever, been less than honest and statesmanlike in his 36 years in politics.

A highly regarded dentist, Dr Ferguson is a good and precise communicator without being particularly comfortable, after all these years, with his ability to use the English language. He's one of those Cabinet ministers who's grounded enough as to give the impression that he doesn't get high off his own flatulence or for that matter the flatus of anyone else. He has been a credit to Mama's Cabinet, for the most part.

It's precisely because of Dr Ferguson's qualities as a person and as a government minister why his handling of the financial crisis in the health sector is so very disappointing and aggravating.

On April 22, during his presentation to the Budget debate, the opposition spokesman on finance, Audley Shaw, revealed that the health ministry alone owed approximately $7 billion in unpaid bills to suppliers of goods and services. Included in that figure was the outstanding amount due to professionals and other categories of workers in the health sector.

The figure was reprised by the opposition spokesman on health, Dr Ken Baugh, when he spoke in the Sectoral Debate last week, during his lament about the arbitrary cuts to the allowances of workers in the sector, along with those for whom salary deductions have not been remitted to the various entities with which they have standing financial arrangements. There was no rebuttal to the figure quoted by Shaw, when Dr Ferguson made his contribution to the Sectoral Debate last week.

dodging the issue

Astonishingly, despite the issues concerning the payment of wages, allowances and deductions plaguing the health sector and which forced doctors and nurses at Cornwall Regional to take industrial action recently, the health minister said not a peep about the issues in his presentation.

He then addressed journalists at the Jamaica House media briefing on July 3, and, astonishingly, claimed not to know the true level of the debts owed by his ministry, 73 days after Audley Shaw had first quoted a figure. Dr Ferguson garbled something to the effect that while he knew the numbers, he wasn't sure about the numbers and would not speculate about the true level of the debt.

Come on! Which minister worth his salt, when confronted with a matter which has forced doctors, nurses and other health professionals to take industrial action, can credibly claim not to know the extent of his ministry's penury which has created the situation? Are we to guess that Dr Ferguson doesn't care about the numbers enough to know them? Is it that he's leaving the matters up to the minister with responsibility for the public service, Horace Dalley, to deal with? So why not tell that to the workers and public then?

This Government boasts about its excellent industrial relations with workers in the public sector. So why then does it not tell health workers the truth about the non-payment of their deductions and the true reason their allowances are being arbitrarily cut by between 15 and 50 per cent?

We all know that the country is going through a difficult economic programme and that pain has to be inflicted across several areas. So why can our health minister not level with workers in his sector about the true state of affairs, beg for their patience and understanding, and then move forward? Why did he have to wait until they took industrial action, placing the lives and well being of patients at risk, before seeking meetings with them to rescue the situation?

The issue of emoluments and their non-payment or late payment to health professionals is one which any conscious health minister must be on top of. So why, on this crucial issue, did Dr Ferguson, a tall man, act so small? Why is it that the usual meetings to placate workers, while begging them to hold strain, only ever held after they've shown the Government, in no uncertain terms, that they will not be trampled on where the short payment or late remittance of their monies are concerned?

Come on, Fenton! Better, please.

Selah.

George Davis is a journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and george.s.davis@hotmail.com.