HEALTH MINISTER CAUGHT OFF GUARD BY JUNIOR DOCTORS’ COMPLAINTS
By Jenique Belgrave
Minister of Health and Wellness Senator Dr The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott says public complaints about junior doctors working long hours have left him feeling like he was “stabbed in the back” because the issue was never raised with him.
The visibly upset Dr Walcott also insisted on Friday that plans were already in the works to get more medical practitioners at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in the next financial year.
Even so, he said, the 30-hour workdays doctors were complaining about were “part of the process” and were actually an improvement over what previously obtained.
“I feel as though I have been stabbed in my back because since I became Minister of Health, I met with the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) in December. We discussed a number of things. There was no issue mentioned in that discussion about junior doctors and their conditions of service…. Not a single junior doctor has asked to meet with me or has written me anything and that is why I feel particularly upset about it,” he told the media on the sidelines of a seminar to mark World Tuberculosis Day, at the Pan American Health Organisation.
“Even on Wednesday, I said that we are going to look at extending the hours in the operating theatres and, naturally, you will need more doctors. I spoke about anaesthetists and I spoke about categories of doctors. Even in the well of Parliament [during the Estimates debate], I said not only doctors but that we will need additional staff – medical and also additional technical people and stuff like this. I’ve been speaking and negotiating, and I’ve been stabbed in my back.”
After Government Senator Dr Crystal Haynes earlier this week, during debate on the Appropriation Bill, 2023 in the Upper House, called for an end to the more than 30-hour shifts junior doctors were working to safeguard both patients and healthcare providers, consultant physician at the QEH Dr Kenneth Connell drew further attention to the matter in an interview with Barbados TODAY, declaring it was a “dangerous” situation for both doctors and the public. Then on Thursday, a group of junior doctors spoke out about their experience in a statement sent to this media house, saying the workload had been so heavy, some of their colleagues had quit and some even required counselling.
However, the Health Minister insisted that long shifts were the norm not only here but in hospitals in developed countries.
He added that overall, conditions have improved.
“They have been improving over time. You are talking about 30 hours? I can speak of working 48 hours. We worked weekends straight and then continued working on Monday. We did. This is part of the process. All over the world, junior doctors complain about the length of days that they work and the hours they work. In some developed countries, they have set guidelines, but even where those guidelines are set, still doctors in the United Kingdom complain about conditions,” asserted the medical doctor who was accompanied by Minister with responsibility for the QEH Dr Sonia Browne.
Adding that the job is not a glamorous one, he declared: “Health care is not sitting down in an office at a desk or a computer and then leaving at 4.30 and being off for a weekend. That is not hospital medicine!”
Minister Walcott said 176 junior doctors and 12 sessional junior doctors are currently employed at the QEH and a case has been made for additional personnel to address staffing shortages there.
“During the Estimates process, I have been speaking to my colleagues in Cabinet, to the Prime Minister. In the well in Parliament, I [said] that we will need – and put a case for the employment of – additional junior doctors. I have said so since January,” he contended.
Responding to the suggestion that a shift system be introduced, Dr Walcott said while doctors in the Accident and Emergency department do work in shifts, staff are also on-call and junior doctors are compensated with allowances for their long hours.
Sources have informed Barbados TODAY that all junior doctors have been invited to a closed-door listening session on Monday at 2 p.m. in the QEH Auditorium to guide plans “to improve their working conditions and well-being going forward”.
In a statement sent to Barbados TODAY and signed by ‘Concerned Junior Doctors’, the medical professionals said the vicious cycle of long workdays and even longer on-call shifts continued to take a negative toll on their physical and mental well-being.
They said burnout and long sick leave were commonplace and called on authorities to give them relief.
They were supported in their call by BAMP president Dr Lynda Williams who welcomed “an urgent examination of the hours that junior doctors now work”.
“We fully support the need to transition to an ideal number of working hours that will allow them to have safe, productive and fulfilling lives and that will protect the public from harm,” she said.
jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb
