CEO of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), Dr. Francis Longsworth, told Commissioners of Inquiry Justice Adolph Lucas, former Auditor General Orvin Nicholas, and retired nursing professional Julia Castillo yesterday, Wednesday, that if there had been any impropriety in the conducting of the hospital’s business in the period in question, it was in the administration before his, and that the Belize Medical and Dental Union (BMDU) most likely knew about it.
These and other startling allegations were presented on the tenth day of public hearings at the Belize Institute of Management on Wednesday morning.
Before hearing from Dr. Longsworth, the panel called on two employees of the hospital, Supervisor of Food and Nutrition Services, Miriam Coleman, and Assistant Manager of the Central Sterilization Unit, Merlene Myvett, to answer for the handling of the hospital’s purchases of supplies and the purchase of orthopedic parts from general surgeon Dr. William Coleman in 2007, respectively.
Coleman revealed that the hospital granted her $500 per week, “petty cash” as she termed it, to buy fruits and vegetables for the hospital, and Julian Chell of Orange Walk became the primary supplier, with no complaints from anyone.
According to Coleman, she found out about the changeover to another supplier, one Fred Williams, after she returned from training in October 2008, from her holdover, and was “surprised,” since there had been no problems that she knew of with Chell.
The holdover, one Jenolphe Smith, also informed that there was a new system in place for handling the buying of vegetables and fruits, and provided Williams’ name and contact number.
Coleman said she was not privy to who supplied meat and fish to the hospital, as she merely prepared the requisitions and handed them to the Stores Department.
Myvett told the Commissioners that she had had no previous knowledge specifically of the intention to purchase orthopedic plates and screws from Dr. Coleman, though she said the hospital got frequent donations.
She was only informed of the presence of the items upon returning from holiday in August by a nurse working the unit with her, and was shown the items at that time.
Since certain surgeries demand certain types of equipment, some of the Coleman-bought equipment remains at the hospital today, sterilized in case of emergency, Myvett said.
Dr. Longsworth, who has been in charge since August of 2008 and has 25 years’ standing in medicine and management, including a stint as managing director of Integral Health Care Center (part of the Universal Health Services Complex) and as a director of primary care management for the Ministry of Health, was in no mood for charity when he took the stand.
Reading from a prepared statement, the CEO laid all blame for the hospital’s failures at the feet of its previous administration, and by implication, the Union.
Not only did they know what was happening, Dr. Longsworth alleged, but they also supported Dr. Ghazy, who was being “disruptive in his insistence that [the hospital] return to the old way of doing business,” and was a party to, and in fact encouraged, the irregularities now being questioned.
Dr. Longsworth attacked Union president Dr. John Sosa’s testimony on Tuesday as falling “woefully short” and failing to provide “a single shred of evidence to substantiate the allegations the union made in June”, and said the union had given voice to those resisting the new administration’s moves toward change, calling its members “naïve participants in the [June] protest with no idea of the hidden agenda to return to the status quo.”
The CEO went on to further address a number of issues previously brought up by past witnesses that he felt needed “further clarification.”
According to Dr. Longsworth, the hospital saved over $2,000 in audit fees by having RF Magaña and Associates conduct the 2008-09 audit over Swift and Associates in 2007-08, despite requiring more from Magaña. Director of Finance Carlos Perrera had brought in Magaña for an audit upon his assuming his post.
Dr. Longsworth confirmed that a 2002 Mitsubishi pickup bought for the hospital at that time was sold to Dr. Ghazy for $3,000, and that Rosado himself bought a Hilux originally sold to the hospital by Belize Diesel for $9,000 plus payment of duty.
On the question of certain questionable transactions in pharmaceutical and medical supplies, Dr. Longsworth repeated the KHMH’s position that those purchases had been fair, and accused former chief KHMH pharmacist Eugene Echegi and Dr. Ghazy of departing from procedure and, in Echegi’s case, refusing CMS’ requests for manual reconciliation of inventory balances and an inability to understand the Belize Health Information System (BHIS), particularly the command to track by dispensation (meaning the system showed no deductions for items requisitioned by units).
The hospital has rarely had to send urgent requests for purchases of needed pharmaceuticals and other supplies since the respective departures of Dr. Ghazy and Mr. Echegi, the CEO said.
The boiler bought in August of 2004 and discarded three years later after numerous breakdowns was sold for $500 to a man from Shipyard, who also took charge of its dismantling.
Then-CEO Alvaro Rosado refused permission to buy a new one, and the new administration did so with Ministry of Health money in 2008, and recycled the water pumps for the chiller system.
When that system needed new parts and they were ordered from Miami, Florida, in April of 2008, the parts lay unclaimed at the Port and were eventually auctioned in May of 2009 without the hospital’s knowledge. The buyer tried to sell them the parts, but the hospital refused and lost $16,000 as a result, plus they had to buy the parts again.
The BHIS system is at 60% usage, with plans to properly link it with the Quickbooks software being worked on by its proprietors in Canada, Dr. Longsworth reported.
Asked why Antonio de la Fuente’s pharmacy in Orange Walk Town was able to do business to the tune of $227,000 in 2008 as a “favoured supplier,” the CEO called it a “coincidence” and maintained that the hospital bought on a competitive basis.
Dr. Longsworth also made a plea to Government not to cut the hospital’s budget.
The Commission takes a break on Thursday and resumes on Friday with two witnesses to be recalled, though it is not known who they are at this time.