Bellevue trims staff fat

Less than a month after Jennifer Small assumed duties as acting chief executive officer of the Bellevue Hospital in Kingston, she has been reassigned to another post.

This is in addition to a number of other staff changes which have been made at the facility following reports of operational irregularities at the island's leading mental-health institution during Tuesday's sitting of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Small, who took office at Bellevue on November 1, will now take up duties as parish manager for St Catherine. She will replace David Dobson, who has been assigned to take up temporary responsibilities as chief executive officer for the parish.

Bellevue matron, Noel Julius, will now assume duties at South East Regional Health Authority's (SERHA) head office to deal with special projects.

The matter of the outstanding audit queries for the years 2002-2007 for the Bellevue Hospital was raised on Tuesday during the Ministry of Health's appearance before the PAC to respond to audit queries contained in the 2007-2008 auditor general's report.

Led by its chairman, Dr Omar Davies, the PAC demanded that permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Jean Dixon, put a stop to the madness that has resulted in a lack of accountability at the health facility.

The major issues that were raised included the expenditure of $400,000 for clearing the roadway of vegetation, as well as the fact that there are 750 members of staff to care for just over 800 in-patients.

No satisfactory answers

Administrators of the hospital were also unable to provide satisfactory answers to questions raised by PAC members in relation to matters outlined in inspection reports done by the Auditor General's Office.

As a result, Health Minister Rudyard Spencer instructed Dixon to take immediate steps to secure documents that may be important in responding to several audit queries contained in the 2002-2003 to 2006-2007 inspection reports of the auditor general.

"A team of auditors from the ministry and from SERHA has taken files related to the outstanding inspection reports and is now combing through documents to complete the response to the outstanding queries which were reviewed and discussed by the teams from the ministry, the region, and the Bellevue Hospital on Wednesday," the minister said.