Former Finance Director has been terminated

Earlier this week, we reported that Dr. Francis Gary Longsworth’s tenure as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) is winding down, and yesterday, the Chairperson of the KHMH’s Board of Directors provided the media with the reason that the CEO’s contract will not be extended, even though he applied for such an extension.

Longsworth’s contract expires in September, and according to Board Chair, Chandra Nisbet-Cansino, the statutory body has decided that it is time to begin looking for new options to fill the post of CEO.

She said, “Dr. Longsworth submitted a request for an extension of his contract; however, the Board [of Directors] had decided from the last renewal, that at the end of this present contract, which I believe will be in September, that we will advertise the post, and anyone is free to apply [because] he has been with the board for two contract periods, with extensions, and I think it’s time for us now, as a Board, to look at the available options that we have out there in the general population, and that’s the reason for opening it up for applications.”

When pressed as to whether the KHMH Board believes that Dr. Longsworth has successfully carried out his responsibilities during his last two terms, Cansino responded by saying, “I would say that Dr. Longsworth did his best.”

Since 2008, Dr. Longsworth has been employed as KHMH’s CEO, and although he did implement some notable programs of improvement, his tenure will forever be marred by the multiple deaths of 13 newborn neonatal patients of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit which occurred in May of last year due to a bacterial outbreak in that section of the hospital.

According to Cansino, advertisements for the post of CEO will be issued either at the end of this month or by the beginning of August.

Another employee who been under scrutiny by the KHMH Board, and who was recently terminated through a Board decision is former Director of Finance, Carlos Perrera.

An audit team is presently scheduled to review a period of financial management during his tenure, and Cansino also explained the nature of his departure, citing that applications for his post will be assessed as early as next week.

She stated, “What I can tell you is that Mr. Perrera is no longer at the KHMH, and we have advertised the post. We have received some applications and we will review those next week. There have been concerns, [and] some of the questions have been answered and some of them have not, and so we mutually agreed to terminate his employment.”

The concerns to which Cansino was referring allegedly relate to unauthorized trips that were reportedly taken by Perrera as well as questionable financial practices which were being carried out by the former Finance Director in the recent past.

“It was I think a couple months ago that it was brought to our attention that the subvention that we were receiving might not cover the expenses that we had, and that was immediately addressed at the Ministry of Finance with support from the Ministry of Health, and an increase in our subvention was given retroactive to April and it should run for the rest of this year. So, yes, there was a concern, I wouldn’t call it a crisis, but there was a concern. It was addressed, and we [now] have that additional funding until the end of the financial year”, she added.

Cansino did not comment on whether the financial predicament was directly related to the firing of Perrera, as she noted that that type of information will only be available after the investigation is concluded.