DLP leader has questions about QEH

President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Verla De Peiza is demanding answers on the status of the healthcare sector, particularly the management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) which she claims has lost its accreditation.

De Peiza, while speaking to party supporters at Sunday’s Christ Church West branch meeting, held at the Arthur Smith Primary School, hinted that all may not be well at the QEH, and called on Government to come clean on issues affecting the tertiary healthcare institution.

She said in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barbadians need to know what is going on in healthcare, especially as it relates to machinery breaking down at the QEH because it is not being properly serviced.

“Please clarify for us what is happening with the nurses at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. And while you are at it, can you please tell us whether or not the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has lost its accreditation, because that is the information being received,” De Peiza said.

“Show us that you can walk and chew gum. Tell us that you didn’t drop the ball on the OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] designation, and also dropped the ball on the QEH designation. And tell us what else you dropped the ball on whilst you are at it.”

The DLP leader added: “I don’t want to get started on the Accident and Emergency Department because I just had a personal experience with it and it was not good. I don’t wish to speak about that in a public domain, I just hope that other citizens of Barbados had a much better experience than I did in a 14-hour wait. I would like to think that the money spent on the new wing were monies well spent and that our equipment is being serviced on a regular basis, as it used to be done before 2018.”

De Peiza said frank conversation was needed regarding the management of the QEH because Barbadians’ healthcare needs existed before the COVID-19 pandemic and will exist during and post-COVID.

She also urged Government to show the people of Barbados how much money is in the public purse, and to say how it will be spent to improve the lives of all Barbadians and not a few.

“It cannot be for the benefit of just a few. It has to be for the benefit of all, if not most,” De Pei

Sources at the QEH refuted De Peiza’s claims that the hospital had lost its accreditation, but indicated that the healthcare institution is set to release an official statement on the matter.

Barbados TODAY understands that the accreditation is a voluntary paid subscription to Accreditation Canada, a private company.

In 2018, for the first time in its more than five decades, the QEH applied for and was awarded Gold Level International Accreditation from Accreditation Canada, the source confirmed.