By:
Peta Rowe-Forde
In delivering a lecture at the University of the West Indies, Chief Executive Officer of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) weighed in on the recent budgetary proposals. Dr. James noted that these funds are needed but would far more hope that they actually be allocated.
“The point that I will make is that those funds should be restricted funds, managed by an independent entity if we are to have a good chance of receiving those funds…Additionally, an entity like ourselves and other social services entities must now provide the documentation to these entities [the independent entity] to make sure that at the end of the day, we are not asking to buy a motorcar or to do nonsense with the funds; in that way at the end of the period we can give full accountability of those resources... If at all these funds are to mingle with the consolidated fund and I dare say even restricted inside the ministry of finance, it is unlikely that those funds will come to us,” stated Dr. James.
The CEO went on to outline some of the institution’s intentions for the money if received. “Another point I would like to make on this is that when the decision is taken as to how much of that fund will come to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, good options are available to us…We could use those funds to retire the amount of money due to us by the Government of Barbados, so we will now have cash to support the operations of QEH which I argue is the fundamental problem we have right now; it is not a budget issue, it’s a cash flow issue.”
He continued, “So we look forward to this arrangement because when those funds come to us, we retire the debt…in the alternative, if a decision is taken and those funds will be used to address the outstanding payables, it is not going to help us much because it is coming in one hand and then we have to use it to pay out... It definitely will not help the cash flow of the hospital... Our hope is that those funds can be used to retire the receivables and to have to cash to pay our bills on a more timely basis.”
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