QEH lashes out at DLP leader for claim facility lost accreditation

The management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has accused President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Verla De Peiza of “distorting the facts” by implying that the health institution has lost its accreditation.

The QEH said that, to the contrary, the accreditation had reached the end of a cycle and the facility is preparing itself to re-engage at the appropriate time in a new cycle.

On Sunday evening, during a Christ Church West meeting, De Peiza called on Government to come clean on issues affecting the tertiary healthcare institution and specifically on the status of its accreditation.

In a statement on Wednesday, the QEH contended that the “allegation” unjustifiably impugns the efforts of the thousands of staff at the QEH who have made and continue to make accreditation possible.

It said that accreditation is not political or administrative, but rather a voluntary subscription programme that is purchased by hospitals from Accreditation Canada, a private Canadian company which takes into consideration an external evaluation of patient care and patient safety practices.

“Accreditation Canada is not a Canadian government entity nor is it a Canada Barbados bilateral programme and cannot be compared to the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] or other treaty-based state obligations. The QEH volunteers to join the Accreditation Canada programme and pays for it. We can therefore set the dates for the start of each cycle,” the statement read.

According to the QEH, it started the accreditation process in 2015 and achieved it in 2017, allowing for entry into a three-year cycle and the opportunity to purchase another subscription at the end of the cycle.

The statement also indicated that the 2017 Gold Accreditation was provisional accreditation and conditional on completing certain outstanding non-conformances.

The QEH further explained that if these standards were not met, the accreditation status would have been lost. It said addressing the non-conformances was a top priority for the new board in 2018, with the facility committed to supporting the staff in attaining the outstanding standards and ensuring that the accreditation was not lost.

The statement added: “More recently, the board decided that rather than going for entry-level Gold Accreditation as was done in 2017, we will aim for the higher-level Platinum Accreditation which focuses on people-centred care and the institution’s responses to the concerns that drive public commentary.

“On July 20, 2021, our Chief Operations Officer, Ms Louise Bobb, wrote to Accreditation Canada and exercised the option given to pay to start a new cycle in March 2021. The 2017 cycle therefore came to its contractual end on July 31, 2021.”

The QEH has also explained that the decision to aspire to accreditation at the platinum level in March 2022 was based on consultation with its partners to ensure that its standing as a teaching hospital and the insurance coverage would not be affected.

“It is most unfortunate that the QEH has been brought into the spotlight in this way, but perhaps it has given us an opportunity to share what we are doing in this important area of work as we propel our efforts to move from gold, to accreditation at the platinum level,” the statement read. (AH)