Psychiatric Hospital workers want director to go

by Emmanuel Joseph 

Some employees at the state-run Psychiatric Hospital are demanding the resignation of director David Leacock, but the under-fire boss has insisted he is staying put.

A spokesman for the workers, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of victimisation, disclosed that the staff members were seeking a meeting with Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic on this and other “burning” issues related to their conditions of employment.

Some of them are accusing Leacock of “poor management” and overseeing a state of affairs in which some nurses have not been paid for at least five months now.

“He can’t blame the shutdown of the office [due to the COVID-19 pandemic] because, as you see, we haven’t been paid in five months,” the spokesman told Barbados TODAY this afternoon.

“Staff want a meeting with the Minister as soon as possible and the removal of the HD [hospital director],” the public officer stated.

While lamenting that health care staff had not been provided with uniforms in four years, the spokesperson blamed the administration office at the hospital for the delay in supplying banking information for the timely payment of salaries.

However, Leacock has dismissed the workers’ claims as well as their demands for him to step down.

For one, he denied that workers at all levels have not been paid for five months.

“That is grossly inaccurate. There is only one officer in this hospital who has not been paid for five months and that is one of our more senior officers…and that is because of a contract issue. He didn’t bring it to my awareness [at first], but he has since been paid,” the hospital boss said.

While rejecting the notion that a wide cross section of employees has not received salaries for five months, he did concede that more than half a dozen are still waiting to be paid for November.

“There were nine persons not paid for November and we are looking to rectify those…. Over 400-plus staff [work at the hospital], so whoever is calling you is obviously on a mission and do not have any facts behind it,” Leacock told Barbados TODAY this afternoon.

He said the nine awaiting payments were seven nurses and two doctors.

Leacock also sought to defend his stewardship and that of the Ministry of Health with respect to the treatment of staff, particularly during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

“Over the last months we have had COVID, the Ministry has been making extraordinary efforts to ensure that the personnel, whether it be nursing, medicine or otherwise, were looked after. It is unfair to say that we are asking our frontline workers to be on the frontline and work and not be paid,” he contended.

Leacock also addressed the workers’ claim that the administration department at the mental facility was responsible for delays in the payment of salaries.

“No, that is not the case. If my staff are in error, I would take full responsibility for them. But in this case, I would not say that,” he said.

“When things are submitted, as far as to go to the necessary areas, there is now a system called CMS or the correspondence management system that we would submit our documentation through.

“So, from the Ministry’s side of things, from the compliance side of things, they can always check and tell you what date information came in, if it had the supporting documentation, because the system is computerised,” he declared.

“So at all stages things are time-stamped to indicate when something is submitted and what’s not. So whatever comes through the department it is going to be processed. I am one of the first persons who would keep noise to make sure my staff gets paid. I believe if a person works they should get paid forthwith,” Leacock insisted.

While noting that sometimes one has to wait on the Public Service Commission for authorisation, which he said is beyond the hospital’s or workers’ control, he is adamant that staff must be paid.

“So, I try to make sure from our end that we do all we can to make sure staff gets paid,” he added.

In response to the workers’ fall for him to resign, the Psychiatric Hospital director made it clear he had no intention to go anywhere until there was good reason for the relevant authorities to send him home.

“I do not determine if I go or stay at this hospital. I do what I am supposed to do as far as the public service is concerned. I don’t know what, beyond the instance of a person not being paid, would cause that [demand].

“This is information that was discussed up to this week at the level of the Director General relative to the same officers not being paid and I am sure they are dealing with it,” he said.

He added: “If it is at their end they believe that I am mismanaging the organisation, I am sure it is within the power of the Director-General and the Permanent Secretary to remove [me] from the position. That is all I can say on that.” (emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)