Four years ago, I submitted an Access to Information request to the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), the development and environmental regulatory agency overseen by Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness.

I had requested copies of all applications made to NEPA by Imperium Investments Holdings Limited and Estatebridge Development Limited—two companies then connected to the prime minister.

The request was never fulfilled in 2022.

Then earlier this month, on Oct. 1, 2026, I finally got a response denying my request on the basis that the documents are exempt.

NEPA invoked Section 16 of the ATI Act, which deals with matters of law enforcement, and I now want to protest the decision.

However, the person designated in law to do the review appears to be Prime Minister Holness in his role as Minister of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development (MEGID) presiding over NEPA.

How can PM Holness be expected to be an impartial reviewer when he has a personal interest in the documents?

This paradox exposes one of the many reasons why the ATI Act needs reform.

Four Years To Get To “No”

I submitted my request to NEPA on Oct. 7, 2022.

The agency wrote a few weeks later on Oct. 27, saying it would undertake the necessary research in order to satisfy the request “within the prescribed thirty (30) days.”

That didn’t happen.

Two years later, in 2024, both Imperium and Estatebridge were mentioned in an Integrity Commission investigation into the prime minister’s finances that found an unexplained increase in Holness’ net worth and transactions that required further scrutiny. The IC referred its report to the Financial Investigations Division (FID) and Tax Administration of Jamaica (TAJ). The FID has since told the IC it has determined there is no reasonable prospect of obtaining evidence to support any criminal charges against Holness, according to Nationwide News, though the FID denied my ATI request for a copy of its letter to the IC on July 27, 2026, also citing Section 16.

Also in 2024, Estatebridge was the subject of another IC investigation which concluded that the company had breached its building permit while constructing four four-bedroom townhouses in the upper St. Andrew community of Beverly Hills instead of the four two-bedroom units that had been approved. Estatebridge has disputed the IC’s findings.

I had mostly forgotten about the specific request until an email earlier this month from NEPA with whom I was recently in touch about some other more recent ATI requests.

The email dated Oct. 1, 2026 stated that in response to my application dated Oct. 7, 2022, “no information can be released at this time” because “the matter is now before the courts,” without specifying what matter.

It cited Section 16 (a) and (b) of the ATI Act which states:

16. Official documents relating to law enforcement are exempt from disclosure if their disclosure would, or could reasonably be expected to—

(a) endanger any person’s life or safety;

(b) prejudice—(i) the conduct of an investigation of a breach or possible breach of the law; or (ii) the fair trial of any person or the impartial adjudication of a particular case;

How environmental applications for these two companies come to be characterized as documents related to law enforcement isn’t clear. How they could reasonably be expected to endanger a person or prejudice the conduct of an investigation or trial or adjudication of a case was also not stated.

When did the “Matter” Come before the Court?

And just what is the matter before the courts?

The only substantive legal matter coming to mind is the yet-to-decided civil judicial-review proceeding filed on Sept. 30, 2024, where PM Holness, along with Imperium and two other companies connected to him, challenged the lawfulness of the IC's investigation concerning his finances.

If this is indeed the case, why wasn’t my request satisfied by NEPA in 2022 —prior to that court case?

Perhaps I’m to blame for not having been more diligent in following up.

But how convenient that only after a court case is lodged—two years later on Sept. 30, 2024 — do you hear two years after that on Oct. 1, 2026: The matter is now before the courts, and as a result, no information can be released at this time.

Now To The Internal Review

The good thing about NEPA’s Oct. 1, 2026 response is that the law allows a requestor to request an internal review within 30 days after the date of a notification.

Usually I would simply write an email requesting an internal review from the head of entity, and NEPA’s CEO, Leonard Francis, wrote to me on Oct. 6, 2026 advising that I should submit my internal-review request to his office.

But that doesn’t appear to be what the ATI Act says should happen when the exemption being claimed is Section 16.

Section 31(1) of the ATI Act states that "An internal review shall be conducted- (a) by the responsible Minister in relation to documents referred to in sections 14, 15, 16 and 18.”

The Act defines the responsible minister as the one over the public authority that holds an official document, which, in this case, would appear to be the prime minister since he presides over NEPA.

But on this matter, the prime minister is conflicted.

At the time of my ATI request to NEPA on Oct. 7, 2022, PM Holness was — and still is — the only named shareholder in Imperium Investments, according to Companies Office records. Imperium also had a stake in Estatebridge, but relinquished those shares as of Oct. 20, 2022. However, Holness’ son and sister remain shareholders in Estatebridge.

The ATI Act is silent on who should preside over the internal review process when the person designated in law to do the review has a conflict.

And it’s not like the requestor can just skip the internal review process —not unless the original decision was made by the responsible minister, permanent secretary or principal officer of the public authority, as stated in Section 30(4).

I’ve asked NEPA’s CEO Francis and PM Holness whether either of them made the original decision to deny my request, but neither has answered. If they did, I could appeal directly to the Tribunal.

However, if they didn’t make the original decision, and neither did the permanent secretary, Section 31(1)(a) appears to designate Holness to conduct the internal review, which means I’m back at the same dilemma I started with.

Take The Politicians Out Of It

There is a relatively simple way to prevent situations like this — make the ATI law explicit that decisionmakers must be impartial, that the internal review process can be skipped, and take ministers out of the review process altogether.

Jamaica should have an independent arbiter, whose mandate is to ensure the release of government information subject to very narrow exemptions, to whom an applicant can appeal without first having to ask the same public entity withholding the information to reconsider its own decision, as they do in countries like Australia.

Under the system I envision, the public entity would have to demonstrate to the independent arbiter the specific harm, and that independent arbiter would then determine if he or she concurs with the public entity. Even when the independent arbiter does concur, that person’s job will still lean toward releasing portions of the document that can safely be made available to the public or make a decision to still release the document despite the demonstrable harm if the public interest outweighs the harm. (Public interest overrides would include if the documents show corruption, misuse of public funds, serious human rights abuses, unlawful behavior, and other areas of public interest.)

The decision of the independent arbiter would be binding, which means the public entity would have to comply. If the independent arbiter sides with the public entity, then an aggrieved applicant would still be able to seek redress from the Appeal Tribunal.

This is radically different from the current Act, which, in sections, allows for the public entity to make the determination if the public interest outweighs the harm on only two categories of issues involving heritage sites/endangered species, and the government’s deliberative processes. Not on areas like commercial interests, foreign relations, or law enforcement.

The independent arbiter would now be the one taking on this role and for almost ALL exemptions, most of which would become qualified rather than absolute.

Make the ATI Unit Independent

For this model to work, the independent arbiter would need to work fulltime for an ATI unit that would also have to become an independent body like the Integrity Commission.

In fact, under my proposed revamp, ALL references in the law to ministerial discretion would be removed from the Act and that discretion given to an independent ATI unit.

The independent ATI unit, as I envision it, would file its own annual reports, have its own enforcement branch and report to parliament rather than its current parent, Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information.

Having an independent ATI unit with an independent arbiter would go a far way to stemming the tide of corruption in this country and reduce the perception, as in my NEPA case above, that the agency is withholding information because it relates to the prime minister.

Making the ATI unit a statutory body with enhanced monitoring and compliance functions, including preparing reports for the parliament, was among the reforms recommended by a Joint Select Committee (JSC) of Parliament in 2011. It also recommended exemptions like security, international relations, business affairs, and law enforcement be subject to a public interest test. Yet, 15 years later, those recommendations remain unimplemented. This is despite Section 38(1) of the ATI Act requiring that the law be reviewed by a committee of both Houses of Parliament appointed for that purpose “from time to time.”

In 2019, the Holness administration promised to announce yet another JSC to review the ATI Act “at the next sitting of Parliament.”

Seven years later, that still hasn’t happened despite the government having set another deadline by April 2025, which it has again missed.

At a July 15, 2026 post-Cabinet press briefing, Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon said the government’s approach was to first incorporate recommendations previously made by stakeholders into draft legislation, and then convene a JSC to consider that draft, rather than making the process open-ended.

But Morris Dixon didn’t give a firm date saying only that she hoped to begin the process by the end of this year.

Video: Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon on July 15, 2026 speaking on the timeline for convening a JSC to reform the ATI Act.

I have subsequently submitted recommendations to the ATI unit in hopes those changes will be incorporated into the draft legislation.

It’s been 24 years since the ATI Act passed, and no meaningful reform has come.

If Morris Dixon misses her own new timeline, the next step may be for us, the citizens, to find a way to challenge her slow action in court.

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*ChatGPT used for research and editing, but I independently fact-checked everything before publication.

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Despite the death of their school principal in 2025, almost 30% of students at Jessie Ripoll Primary School were placed in their first choice of high school following the 2026 Primary Exit Profile (PEP).

The school, owned and administered by the Roman Catholic Church in Jamaica, but partially funded by the Jamaican government, had the highest first-choice placement rate of 72 public primary schools in Kingston and St. Andrew with at least 20 PEP candidates, as ranked by 18° North Data.

The raw data were obtained from the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information under the Access to Information Act but cleaned and analyzed by 18° North Data using AI.

While percentage of first-choice placements is only one benchmark to gauge the quality of a school, it is one criterion that can be objectively measured.

St. Richard’s Primary, another Roman Catholic Church-owned school, ranked second, and Mona Heights Primary, a government-owned institution, came in third with just over 22% of their students each getting their first choice for high school.

A higher percentage of students at these three tuition-free schools managed to get their first choice in 2026 compared to the 21.8% of students combined across 54 private prep schools in Kingston and St Andrew with at least one PEP candidate for which parents pay hundreds of thousands of dollars each term in hopes their child will get an edge.

But these three primary schools were the standouts.

Overall, across 99 public primary schools in those parishes with at least one PEP candidate, fewer than 9% of students got their first choice.

First-choice placement rates at some public primary schools were particularly low.

George Headley Primary in Duhaney Park in St. Andrew, for example, fielded 203 candidates and only had four first-choice placements —or fewer than 2% of their students. Allman Town Primary in Kingston had 74 candidates, and only one of them got their first choice. No student got their first choice of a combined 174 students at five other public primary schools.

Since the release of the 18° North Data Preparatory School Rankings, education ministry representatives and educators have cautioned that low placement rates at some schools may reflect the tendency for parents to select the top high schools for the child’s first choice despite advice from educators and administrators that, based on the child’s grades, there’s little to no chance of them getting in.

PEP placement scores draw on assessments from Grades 4, 5 and 6, with 40 points assigned at Grade 4, 80 at Grade 5 and 280 at Grade 6, for a possible total of 400 points. Since placement is computerized, the students that get the best grades are the ones that tend to get their first choice regardless of whether they attend a public primary or private prep school.

To better guide parents, in our Ranking of Public Primary Schools, 18° North Data is also including in the same report a Comprehensive List of ALL the High Schools in Kingston and St. Andrew and the Average Grade of the Students Placed at Each High School in 2025 and 2026, as obtained from the Ministry of Education.

Here now is the Full Ranking of the Kingston & St. Andrew Public Primary Schools and the Mean PEP Placement Score at Each High School in those parishes:

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Dr. Carl Bruce, the University Hospital of the West Indies’ (UHWI) senior neurosurgeon whose leadership as chief doctor has come under scrutiny in recent months, has been acquitted of charges arising from allegations that he assaulted fellow neurosurgeon Dr. Roger Hunter nearly two decades ago.

18° North confirmed with the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday that Bruce was found not guilty of one count each of assault at common law and malicious destruction of property on Monday.

Hunter had alleged that while in one of the operating theaters at the publicly-funded UHWI in the summer of 2007, Bruce ordered him out of the room and advanced toward him, hitting him in the head, face, neck and chest, damaging his shirt and tie, but he didn’t report the matter to police until November 2024 —17 years later.

Though he explained that this was because he had left the country to pursue further medical studies, various news reports put him back in Jamaica years before 2024. He even rose to local prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

According to media reports, Parish Court Judge Alwayne Smith questioned the plausibility of Hunter’s account and pointed to the lengthy delay before the matter was reported to police which put Bruce at a disadvantage in remembering the incident. Smith also suggested that there was insufficient evidence supporting the claim of a “non-stop onslaught lasting 22 to 25 minutes” by a man said to weigh over 200 pounds, including no medical report of any injury.

Bruce didn’t respond to comment for reaction to the verdict from 18° North but told The Gleaner, “My church, my grounding and my faith always remind me about weapons that will rise up against me.”

But, he said, “The judge saw through it, and I am sorry it wasted everyone’s time.”

Monday’s outcome is noteworthy because the case against Bruce was alluded to by senior clinicians in a Jan. 16 letter to UHWI’s management as one of the reasons he shouldn’t remain as the public image of the hospital. According to the Staff Orders for the Public Service, where an officer has been charged with a criminal offence, he or she “may” be interdicted from duty on half, quarter or no salary, pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.

The senior clinicians also cited longstanding complaints from staff about Bruce’s alleged unprofessional behavior, including another court case where a nurse filed a lawsuit against him and UHWI, complaining of assault and battery arising from an incident in the ICU in 2023. That civil case in the Supreme Court will have its first case management conference on September 30, according to a June 15 email to 18° North from the court’s media liaison officer.

But despite the senior clinicians’ attempts to get Bruce removed, including writing to the prime minister, he still remains in the position, according to two senior staffers involved in patient care at UHWI. One of them told 18° North most of the senior doctors continue to boycott the meetings that Bruce chairs.

Dr. Myrton Smith, the UHWI representative of the Association of Government Medical Consultants, a union body for the senior doctors, didn’t respond to requests for comment on Bruce’s acquittal.

Meanwhile, in a voicenote to 18° North, Hunter called the judgment “a bad day for criminal justice in Jamaica.” He told the Jamaica Observer he will appeal the decision.

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*Some writing and editing help from ChatGPT, but fact-checked by 18° North before publication.

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High school in Jamaica is perceived as a badge of your academic prowess and how you’ve been socialized, opening the doors for the job you’ll get one day and establishing a network that will serve you for life.

All of the most sought-after high schools are public, which means the whole country — rich and poor — are competing for those spots.

Those that get the best grades in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) are the ones that tend to get their first choice of high school.

To get an edge, hundreds of parents forgo tuition-free education in the government’s primary school system and opt instead to enroll their children in private preparatory school, which can cost hundreds of thousands of Jamaican dollars each school term.

And maybe with good reason.

New data obtained by 18° North from the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information under the Access to Information Act show that 22% of PEP candidates at private prep schools in Kingston and St. Andrew got their first-choice high school in 2026, compared with 9% at public primary schools in those parishes.

Marketing and Positioning of Schools Versus Actual Results

Deciding on a school is therefore one of the single most important decisions a parent can make for their child. But there’s not a lot of data-driven independent information to make the most-informed decisions.

One prep school in a July 2026 promotion, for instance, brands itself as “The Ultimate PEP Academy” touting “Ultimate Performance” and “Ultimate Results,” and yet the data show none of its candidates got their first choice of high school in the 2026 PEP exam, placing it in a tie for last in the ranking by 18° North Data of 42 Kingston and St. Andrew prep schools with at least 10 PEP candidates.

Money is also no guarantee of a first-choice placement. Some prep schools with reported tuition of J$185,000 (US$1,166) or more a term landed in the bottom half of the rankings. At one of those—whose Grade 6 tuition is J$485,000 (US$3,056) a term—fewer than 10% of candidates secured their first-choice high school, almost on par with the 9% placement rate of students in public schools in Kingston and St. Andrew.

While percentage of first-choice placements is only one benchmark to gauge the quality of a school, it is one criterion that can be objectively measured against reputation and marketing.

That’s why 18° North Data, with help from AI, has crunched the ministry’s data and put them in a useable format that parents can use.

On this measure, some familiar prep schools made the top 10. So did lesser-known schools that outranked the established schools.

Here is the full 18° North Data ranking of Kingston and St. Andrew prep schools:-

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Which preparatory and primary schools are getting the highest percentage of their PEP candidates into their first-choice high schools?

Beginning tomorrow, 18° North Data will reveal how more than 40 PREPARATORY SCHOOLS rank across Kingston and St. Andrew.

WHAT THE RANKINGS WILL REVEAL

• Which schools recorded the highest first-choice placement rates

• The number of candidates who received their first choice

• How each school’s 2026 performance compares with 2025

• The schools recording the biggest improvements—and the biggest declines

MINISTRY DATA. CLEANED, CHECKED AND MADE USEFUL.

The rankings are based on raw data obtained from Jamaica’s Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth & Information under the Access to Information Act.

18° North Data cleaned, checked and analyzed the information—with assistance from AI—and transformed it into a clear, accessible guide for parents.

First-choice placement is not the only measure of a school’s performance. But it is one important indicator parents can consider when assessing their options.

AND THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING

Coming next:

• Kingston and St. Andrew primary-school results

• Preparatory and primary-school rankings for other parishes

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The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) public meeting on 19 August in Ocho Rios regarding Sandals 2022 application to build over-water villas in Mammee Bay was well-attended and indeed vibrant. The meeting had to be paused twice because of commotion caused by competing political aficionados at the back.

But the EIA process is deeply flawed. Many comments and questions would have benefitted from an immediate response from Sandals, but we were told the company’s answers would come later. Their only (formal) presence was at the start when their Regional Public Relations Manager regaled us with a long list of their community contributions. Unsurprisingly, one speaker pointed to the duplicity of this approach given corporate over-reach and Sandals controversies in several Caribbean locations.

The National Environmental Planning Authority (NEPA) attended only peripherally and in making the point that they had a duty to remain neutral regarding the pros and cons of the proposal, they would not explain why a change was made to local environmental regulations in 2025 that would allow such a development, subject to an EIA, when formerly it was out of the question in the Ocho Rios Marine Protected Area.

Questions were also raised as to the robustness of the EIA research especially regarding the representativeness of the many persons and organizations asked for their opinion of the Sandals proposal, and the framing of the questions asked of them. Several persons at the meeting who would be directly affected by the project said they were not amongst those surveyed. Persons canvassed for their opinion of the project were asked bland questions with no context offered. This was admitted by Paul Carroll from TEM Network Ltd., the entity that prepared the EIA document, which notes that “82.8% of the combined group of fishermen and excursionists interviewed having no knowledge of the proposed development.” Quite who were the “excursionists” on a beach which has limited to no public access was another question asked, and also who did the professionals surveyed include?

Many surveyed, and also at the meeting, said they welcomed the project because of the jobs it would create, over 100 during construction and 50 thereafter. Yet what of the costs? Many fishermen are fearful that they would no longer be able to fish in the area, as described in a Gleaner article dated Dec. 7, 2025 ‘Fishers uneasy over Sandals overwater villas at Mammee Bay’. The EIA surveys were done as far back as 2022 and since that time Mammee Bay has seen further reduction in beach access, generating widespread protests. It is significant that omitted from the list of relevant laws and regulations in the EIA document is the Prescription Act of 1882 that allows a person to gain a legal right (such as a right of way or access to water or land) by using it openly and continuously for 20 years without interruption. The Act is the basis of an ongoing court case regarding access to Mammee Bay beach.

Then there is the irreversible damage that would be done to the extensive sea grass beds and indeed the reef, with the villas extending over 150m out into the sea. The EIA likes the word ‘potential’ when describing the risks, but at other times that descriptor is correctly omitted. This collection of 18 villas, if allowed, would surely just be the start of similar mushrooming developments elsewhere along Jamaica’s pristine coastline with all the environmental damage and exclusion involved. Jamaica is clearly an attractive enough destination without such encroachments.

The EIA provides details of the alternative of building the villas on the land instead. The job benefits would be much the same without the environmental and social disruption. The description of this alternative given in the EIA is that of “luxury beachfront villas offering views, private pools and direct beach access within lush garden surroundings.” Surely this is enough of an enticement for wealthy visitors? Only Sandals would lose out a little, unable to charge quite as much as US$2,000 or more per night. If the staff working in the villas were paid premium (double?) wage rates, that might mean a little more local benefit. But if Sandals is so committed to Jamaica, why could they not use their ample profits to help facilitate greater supplies from more local farmers, and even encourage tourism diversity with Airbnb's from whom they could earn a commission?

Exclusive enclave tourism does not spread the benefits of the sector very widely in Jamaica. And it helps to cut visitors off from the rich socio-cultural environment which makes Jamaica stand out above sand/sea/sun-only destinations. Sandals in Negril is set well back from the water such that the beach is equally available to both locals and hotel guests who can mingle if they so choose. The same is true in Ocho Rios (Turtle) Bay with the Moon Palace and other hotels. Both show that it can be done without harassment being a problem.

I look forward to the time when full public access to Jamaica's beaches integrates hotel tourism into the mainstream of Jamaican life, with Mammee Bay beach leading the way. The larger goal must be comprehensive beach rights, not discretionary access controlled by government and the corporate sector. It is regrettable that the duplicitous Beach Access and Management Policy (BAMP) tabled in March 2026 leads us in the opposite direction.

Paul Ward
Oracabessa

The views expressed are not necessarily those of 18º North.
Send feedback to pgward72@gmail.com.

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She was white, from Ireland, and over 65.

But in 2023, the board of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) felt Dorothy Hosein was the right choice to transform the beleaguered teaching hospital.

Despite her experience having done similarly for other troubled teaching health institutions in the U.K., her race, age and nationality became the focus at one of the UHWI board meetings. Board members discussed how to present and defend the appointment of an older, white Irish woman over a Jamaican candidate.

So, was the board appropriately considering political and cultural sensitivities or were the discussions merely a distraction from the effort to transform UHWI?

Board minutes and interviews by 18° North suggest that while directors focused on how the appointment would be perceived publicly, the greater obstacle to reform were key figures within and around the state-funded hospital.

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Hosein had no ties to Jamaica but still emerged the best of 47 candidates that had applied to the advertised job. Two internal candidates “fell below the requirements,” according to a batch of minutes from the 2023 board meetings submitted to the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in June 2026.

The Sept. 20, 2023 minutes show UHWI was seeking a proven, strategic leader with turnaround experience, one who could learn the culture and command respect. Wayne Chai Chong, who served as board chairman between December 2022 to December 2023, told 18° North he initially thought any experienced manager could do the job but soon realized a teaching hospital requires specialized skill.

Six candidates were shortlisted from Australia, the U.S., Trinidad and Tobago and the U.K. with only one Jamaican among them. Then-Interim CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell was added to the pool because he was already acting in the role but came last or second-to-last in the interviews, according to Chai Chong.

By round robin —where votes were submitted by email rather than at a meeting —the minutes show a majority of the board decided to proceed with Hosein. Chai Chong told 18° North she had a “tremendous resume.” Of note, her resume shows she had experience leading teaching hospitals.

Hosein subsequently visited the island and met with staff, members of the management team, some board directors and Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton.

Upon Hosein having visited, member Dr. Ronald Robinson, a former senator and junior minister under the Bruce Golding administration, questioned at the Sept. 20, 2023 meeting whether “a white woman from Ireland in her sixties” could immerse herself in Jamaican culture. Lisa Soares Lewis of Great People Solutions, the firm that led the search, defended the choice, pointing to Hosein’s actions and passion. She also cited former Jamaica Public Service CEO Kelly Tomblin, another white foreign executive, as proof that Jamaicans were receptive to outsiders who delivered results.

While Robinson praised the search process, he wondered how the decision would play out publicly and politically, pondering “if there was no Jamaican or black man or woman who could have gotten the job and was the Board prepared to offer them the same salary as the overseas candidate.” According to the minutes, the prescribed government basic salary for the CEO was $12.96 million (US$83,618) per year, and the board was seeking another $10-$12 million (US$64,520 - US$77,424) annually from the private sector to bolster the CEO Designate’s pay.

Prof. Horace Fletcher cautioned that making decisions based on anticipated political fallout risked favoring political people. Robinson objected and said that wasn’t the point he was making but countered that, whether the board liked it or not, “there were political ramifications.” Chai Chong maintained the process had been "fair and without bias," noting that neither the health minister nor the permanent secretary had cautioned against Hosein's selection. Board member Donovan Betancourt recommended a public relations team to explain the appointment.

Color and race continue to play a role in Jamaican society

Recruiter Dr. Leahcim Semaj, who has worked for both the public and private sectors, says the board’s deliberation was, “not an unreasonable discussion” because the preference is to find someone who is not only qualified but also a cultural fit who’ll command respect from the organization.

“Those kinds of discussions take place, but you don’t necessarily put that in writing,” Semaj said.

University of the West Indies Professor Emerita Carolyn Cooper says race remains a sensitive issue in Jamaica despite the national motto, “Out of Many, One People.” She pointed to the racist taunts directed at white Opposition Leader Mark Golding as evidence that race continues to shape public discourse and says if a white woman was hired for the top job at UHWI, “Some people would see her as an inappropriate hire in a predominantly black society.”

But Hosein doesn’t see it that way and said after being told by 18° North about the board discussion on her personal characteristics, “My race and gender were irrelevant, I believe,” and added that she has led healthcare organizations in the UK with up to 56 different nationalities and has also been married to a Trinidadian for 40 years.

If anything, she said in an earlier phone interview, staff she met viewed her foreignness as a plus because they wanted change from an independent person with “no connection to anything.”

Comments about age

Jamaica’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (Constitutional Amendment) Act, 2011 guarantees every person the right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of being male or female, or on the basis of race, place of origin, social class, color, religion or political opinions. However, on the UHWI board discussions about Hosein, constitutional law expert Dr. Lloyd Barnett cautioned that “a complaint on constitutional breach is based on action that affects the person, not discussion about problems that may arise.”

Hosein’s age also came under scrutiny at the Sept. 20 and Oct. 3, 2023 board meetings.

Senior Director, Clinical Services (SDCS) Dr. Carl Bruce argued that a transformational leader should not be retired and questioned whether there had been an age range set for the CEO role. He noted that before the board was asked to ratify Hosein’s appointment, members should have seen due diligence documents, including a psychometric test, police report and medical report, “especially for an elderly person.” Unlike countries like the United States and Canada, there appears to be no explicit prohibition in the law against age discrimination in Jamaica.

Soares Lewis responded that the position was a fixed-term contract, which allowed for flexibility, “even with age,” and confirmed that due diligence was the employer’s responsibility. Chai Chong chimed in that Hosein’s visit was part of that process and that it was customary for the contract to be awarded subject to the psychometric test and the medical. The board then agreed they would require a police report and psychometric test, though the minutes didn’t specifically mention requiring a medical.

BBC reported in 2021 that Hosein had to leave her job as CEO of the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) because of ill health, including a severe bout of COVID. But, in her interview with 18° North, Hosein described herself as very fit and not even taking one pill. The BBC article quoted the EEAST chairwoman as saying that under Hosein’s leadership, “The trust moved from being the worst-performing ambulance trust in England to one that regularly met and even outperformed national standards.”

From the UHWI board minutes back in 2023, Prof. John Lindo reassured colleagues that “he did not see the candidate being hampered by her age based on his interaction with her” and described her as “a very solid candidate” with a fresh pair of eyes who could “bring the transformation to reality.”

Prof. Minerva Thame called her “a very confident woman” with much to offer, and Roger Anderson remarked that she was “energetic and full of passion.”

Hosein was selected but walked away anyway

Ultimately, the board selected Hosein despite her race, nationality and age, but it was Hosein who walked away.

She told 18° North that while most board members and staff warmed to her and seemed to want change, she sensed resistance from key influential figures.

She recounted how when she visited UHWI, then-Interim CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell refused to show her around despite being assigned to do so; Bruce, the SDCS, declined to meet with her and, she was told, said he would not report to her; and Health Minister Tufton was “not welcoming” and appeared to favor Mitchell.

The minutes of Oct. 3, 2023 record that Hosein turned down the offer “as she did not believe that she could make the necessary changes required for the transformation of the Hospital, due to the hostile environment in which she perceived she would be engulfed.” Hosein told 18° North the decisive moment came when the board later informed her it couldn’t make the governance and power structure changes she believed were essential for any CEO to succeed.

Mitchell eventually became CEO. Chai Chong says it was the decision by Tufton to reinstate Mitchell as acting CEO in December 2023 after his board had voted to replace him with another senior director at UHWI during the ongoing CEO search that prompted his resignation as chairman and the dissolution of his board. Tufton has since dismissed the claim, saying, “Ministers don’t appoint CEOs” and said there was no evidence that the board had taken such a decision in the first place for him to have then overturned it.

Mitchell is now on accrued leave amid a fraud squad investigation following a damning Auditor General’s report in January 2026 into procurement breaches and management and governance failures at UHWI dating back to 2019. He has declined to comment on the report or appear before the PAC probing the allegations.

A review committee established in response to the report later identified some of the same governance and power structure problems Hosein said had convinced her she could not succeed as CEO.

Among its recommendations was eliminating the anomaly, as stated in the 1948 UHWI Act, that makes the Chair of the Hospital Medical Committee — a position held by Bruce as SDCS — an ex-officio member of the board, but not the CEO. It also recommended hiring international transformational expertise in hospital administration for at least a year to provide fulltime board support to institute change.

“We do not have, in my humble personal opinion, the level of expertise available here in Jamaica in relation to teaching hospitals,” review committee chairman Howard Mitchell said in May. “The choice of that expert is critical.”

UHWI has since put out an international tender for a consulting firm with such expertise and a deadline of August 24, 2026.

As the institution faces continued criticism over poor patient care, lack of resources and failures of management and governance, the question is: will this next attempt to enlist international expertise also involve talk about race, age and nationality, or will the board’s sole focus be on removing whatever hurdles exist in order to fix the hospital?

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Editing help from ChatGPT.

Exchange rate used was J$154.99:US$1, the average sell rate on the Bank of Jamaica’s website for 2023.

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When Dorothy Hosein visited Jamaica in September 2023, she expected to spend a week meeting stakeholders and touring the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) before formally accepting the job as CEO.

She’d been selected from a batch of six shortlisted candidates by the UHWI board based on her years of experience transforming other troubled health institutions in the U.K. and was looking forward to doing the same for Jamaica’s premier state-funded hospital.

But while she was received warmly by staff and members of the board, who seemed to want change, in an exclusive interview, she said it became clear to her a faction of key persons didn’t want her there, which ultimately led to her turning down the job.

Then-Acting CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell wouldn’t show her around despite being tasked with doing so; Chief doctor Carl Bruce refused to meet with her, and she learned he’d said he wouldn’t report to her as CEO; Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton was “not welcoming” and, in her presence, cozied up to Mitchell, who eventually got the top spot despite finishing last or second-to-last in the rounds of interviews, according to UHWI Board Chairman Wayne Chai Chong. Chai Chong says it was the decision by Tufton to reinstate Mitchell as acting CEO after the board voted to replace him with another senior director at UHWI during the ongoing CEO search, that led to his resignation as chairman and the dissolution of his board. Tufton has since dismissed the claim, saying ministers don’t appoint CEOs.

Mitchell is now on accrued leave amid a fraud squad investigation following a damning Auditor General’s report in January 2026 into procurement breaches and has declined to appear before the PAC probing the allegations against UHWI.

Bruce, meanwhile, remains in place as chief doctor, as does Tufton as health minister. None of the three have commented on their interactions with Hosein despite being given an opportunity to do so by 18° North.

In May 2026, Tufton voiced support for the recommendations of a review committee he set up in the wake of the Auditor Generals’ report, including appointing a fulltime international expert in hospital administration to the UHWI board for at least a year.

The question is, based on Hosein’s experience three years earlier where the UHWI board tried to recruit an experienced international hospital turnaround specialist to lead the institution but the effort collapsed in part because of him, does Tufton really support change or is it only him about appearing to do so?

In an exclusive interview, Hosein lays out her experience and explains why it’ll be difficult for any CEO to fix UHWI unless the power structure changes first.

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Audio Interview with Dorothy Hosein, the CEO candidate the board chose in 2023 to run UHWI.

Timestamps

0:00 Rigorous hiring process: The interviewee went through a competitive, multi-month recruitment process for a Chief Executive role and was ultimately selected.

0:22 Pre-start visit week: As is standard practice, she visited the hospital for a week before starting to meet directors, staff, tour facilities, and meet the Minister of Health, Dr. Christopher Tufton.

1:04 Hostile reception from acting CEO: On day one, the acting CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell was immediately and inexplicably hostile, refused to show her around, and so she left after around 10 minutes and arranged instead with the Director of HR to take her around.

2:50 Circulated negative communication: During her visit, she got a call from the then board chairman Wayne Chai Chong alerting her to a note that was being circulated allegedly from Bruce and possibly Mitchell claiming she was “not fit for the job.”

3:20 Staff were welcoming and eager for change: Despite leadership hostility, frontline staff — nurses, doctors, admin — were enthusiastic and open to change, valuing her independence and experience.

3:55 Minister of Health Tufton not supportive: Despite apparently helping to try and get approval from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to sign off on the board’s plan for the private sector to supplement the pay package of the CEO Designate, Minister Tufton didn’t appear warm or welcoming to her and seemed to favor Mitchell.

5:58 Bruce refused to meet her: The Senior Director, Clinical Services flatly refused to meet her at any point and no reason given.

6:14 Culture of fear: Staff described certain individuals holding disproportionate power and control, with people afraid to speak out. Some people threatened by change.

8:08 A major governance concern: She learned Bruce had indicated he would not report to her as CEO.

8:45 Transforming the hospital: On Bruce having said there was no way that a CEO could come and transform the hospital in three years, which was the length of her contract. Within eight months at other places, she was able to show improvement.

9:58 She raised governance concerns with the board: At the end of the week, she told the chairman she still wanted the job but listed clear governance issues that had to be resolved first.

11:12 Threatening undercurrent: She received a call saying to be careful.

12:18 Who was in control of the hospital: She learned Bruce had to approve everything.

14:10 Wouldn’t have been able to come without the minister’s support: She raised lack of support from Tufton with the board.

14:22 Ultimately turned down the job: The board communicated they were unable to resolve the governance issues and action change, leading her to formally withdraw.

15:45 Open to re-engaging: She expressed care for Jamaica’s healthcare system and didn’t rule out future involvement but emphasized the focus should be on fixing the hospital rather than her return. The hospital needs to change.

17:45 Being a foreigner: People are craving change from someone with no connection to anything.

18:13 Connection to the West Indies: Husband is Trinidadian. Met in Ireland.

19:12 A&E conditions: She personally witnessed the poor conditions, reinforcing her belief the hospital urgently needs change. I really know I can do this. I’ve done it before.

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Editor’s Notes:

Interview has been edited for brevity.
Minister Tufton was also asked via email if he had made any attempt since May to propose amendments to the 1948 UHWI Act in order to action one of the recommendations of the review committee which was to eliminate the anomaly in the Act where the Senior Director of Clinical Services (chief doctor) sits on the board while the CEO doesn’t, which creates a power conflict, and he didn’t respond. He also didn’t say whether another recommendation had been actioned which was to impose term limits on the Chair of the Hospital Medical Committee, a post held by the SDCS.

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Push to Replace UHWI Chief Doctor Carl Bruce Reaches Prime Minister Amid Complaints Against Him and Perceived Hospital Inaction

Records Point to Family Link Between UHWI Medical Chief of Staff and MEDITECH, Raising Conflict-of-Interest Questions

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The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) is facing mounting pressure over poor patient care, management and governance failures, and procurement irregularities.

The state-run institution was the site of a recent protest by nurses who claim that because of inadequate bed space and resources at the Accident and Emergency Department, patients were being resuscitated on the floor.

Now, minutes of UHWI board meetings show that, as these problems were festering, an effort to recruit a transformational CEO in 2023 collapsed amid internal resistance from the hospital’s chief doctor Carl Bruce and then-Acting CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell.

The minutes submitted to the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and obtained by 18° North raise questions about whether entrenched interests blocked reforms that could have addressed the deficiencies of the teaching hospital.

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Mitchell ultimately secured the top post despite placing last or second-to-last in the interview process, according to Wayne Chai Chong, who served as board chairman between December 2022 to December 2023. Mitchell is now on accrued leave amid a fraud squad investigation following a damning Auditor General’s report in January 2026 into procurement breaches and has declined to comment or appear before the PAC probing the allegations against UHWI. Eric Hosin acted in the role until June 10, and Lt. Colonel Dr. Sydney Powell is now the new interim CEO.

The minutes from 2023 show that the Chai Chong-led board underwent an extensive process using an external recruiter which shortlisted six candidates. Mitchell had only been added to the pool because he was already acting in the role.

By round robin —where votes were submitted by email rather than at a meeting —the minutes show a majority of the board decided to proceed with Dorothy Hosein who had a “tremendous resume,” according to Chai Chong.

Hosein’s LinkedIn profile shows a transformational leader who served as CEO and in other leading roles at major British hospitals, including teaching ones.

However, when she came to Jamaica to meet with key stakeholders and senior management to ensure she was up to the challenge before contract signing, the minutes show Bruce, referred to as the Senior Director, Clinical Services (SDCS), didn’t meet with her. They also show Hosein felt Mitchell—who was being considered for a Deputy CEO role— was uncooperative. Mitchell said “no comment,” and
Bruce didn’t respond to an emailed set of questions.

Due to the perceived hostile environment, Deputy Chairman of the board and Chairman of its HR subcommittee Dr. Andre Foote, reported at the Oct. 3, 2023 meeting, the CEO Designate had turned down the offer. “Had the Senior Director of Clinical Services taken the time to meet with the CEO Designate, the outcome would have been different today,” he stated.

Another board member, Dr. Ronald Robinson, wanted confirmation that Hosein had in fact turned down the offer as a result of not meeting with the SDCS and the assumed hostility from the Acting CEO, and “Dr. Foote replied in the affirmative and asked the Chairman to comment on the matter.”

In commenting, Chai Chong noted that in discussions with Hosein, she felt she would have been undermined by both Mitchell and Bruce. He also mentioned that she had become familiar with “a campaign” against her employment.

Robinson argued that Hosein’s reasons were “flimsy” and momentarily turned his attention to Hosein’s required pay being above the prescribed government salary for UHWI’s CEO of J$12.96 million (US$83,618), and that the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service (MoFPS) hadn’t agreed to the board’s plan of soliciting supplemental funds from the private sector.

Returning to the issue, board member Andrea McNish said it would be incumbent on any new CEO to bring people together despite initial pushback.

However, another board member, Roger Anderson, felt that Hosein’s reasons shouldn’t be discounted and believed Bruce should be asked to respond, given that if the hospital were a private entity, a person not meeting with an incoming CEO would have been asked to resign.

Bruce’s Reason for Not Meeting With The CEO Designate

In response, Bruce said he didn’t meet with Hosein because he was home on sick leave and didn’t wish to invite her to his home.

However, he said that though he originally gave both the Chairman and the Deputy Chair his “unequivocal support” and also suggested how the CEO could be successful, he felt that the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of the West Indies (UWI) or his designate should have been more involved in the negotiations given the need for knowledge transfer and the fact that the last two CEOs were paid by both UHWI and UWI and the position automatically gets a board seat on key university committees.

Bruce admitted seeing an email from the Chairman that the VC or the Principal had been consulted with, but he still thought the VC should have been given time to comment and, therefore, “he refused to move forward.”

He also pointed to missing dates on the candidate’s CV, concerns about her being over 65, and no due diligence report provided despite one having been requested.

The Reaction To Bruce’s Reasoning

Bruce’s rationale didn’t go over well with Chief Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health & Wellness, Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, who said she didn’t hear a valid reason why Bruce didn’t meet with Hosein and saw no reason why this wouldn’t happen again. “As a Senior Officer within the institution,” she said, “Dr. Bruce could not act this way and think it was okay.”

Board member Joanna Banks-Holmes asked Bruce if he would meet with any other candidate that was brought in, but Bruce had two main conditions — that the board needed to get written approval from the MoFPS on the compensation package being bolstered by the private sector, and that UWI’s leadership needed to give its blessing.

On his first condition, the board agreed — and minutes from the next board meeting show a no-objection letter was eventually received from the MoFPS. However, on his second condition, Bisasor-McKenzie said the board didn’t report to UWI and had no obligation to be in agreement on this matter, so the board needed to determine if it would move forward with the CEO selection process or continue to be held ransom by Bruce’s requests.

The board agreed to approach the next candidate in line—an Australian.

Why is Bruce Opposed?

It’s not clear why Bruce was so stuck on UWI’s Vice Chancellor or Principal being in agreement with the selection of the CEO when even before that October meeting, the addendum to the Sept. 20, 2023 minutes show that the Chairman didn’t just meet with the Principal and VC on two occasions at Bruce’s request but also that “the Principal had indicated that he was satisfied with the process and had communicated same to Sir Hilary Beckles [the VC].” Still, Bruce stated he wasn’t satisfied that the issue of knowledge transfer had been properly ventilated with them.

UWI is also already represented on the UHWI board, responsible for appointing eight of its 18 members, and Bruce, himself, had acknowledged that UWI had stopped paying the UHWI CEO “at some point.” (Chai Chong says he never approached UWI about helping to pay the CEO Designate and doesn’t know of it helping to pay the CEO in the past either.)

Part of the reason appears to have been Bruce’s desire to maintain control.

He was recorded to have said in the Sept. 20 2023 minutes that the process after the interviews were conducted was a “disaster”, and “there was no way a CEO could learn the Hospital and transform it within 3 years.”

One senior doctor, who preferred to go unnamed, also said that while Mitchell was in the CEO seat, Bruce was the de facto head of the hospital, where, even on one occasion, the doctor saw Bruce overturn a decision by Mitchell.

The 1948 UHWI Act specifies that the Chair of the Hospital Medical Committee —a position held by the SDCS —should serve as an ex-officio member of the board, but there’s no provision in the Act for the CEO to be a board member.

In May 2026, a review committee set up in the wake of the Auditor General’s findings said this situation creates obvious potential for conflict and “mission creep” where the lines get blurred as to who is responsible for driving the institution’s strategic vision and hiring staff.

It recommended that this anomaly be eliminated and the scope of responsibility for both positions be clearly articulated. Other senior directors at UHWI report to the CEO.

It also suggested two-term limits for the Chair of the Hospital Medical Committee similar to those for heads of departments and deans at UWI and also recommended that an independent third-party provider of international reputation be hired for at least a year to provide fulltime board support to institute changes.

In his submission discussed at the PAC hearing on May 12, 2026, Chai Chong said the governance conflict with the SDCS was the reason why the CEO Designate, ultimately didn’t sign the contract as she wanted assurances this would change.

The issue was discussed at the board meeting on Oct. 3, 2023, but the minutes show it wasn’t resolved.

Failed Effort to Move to Second-Choice CEO Candidate

As to what happened with the board’s second choice for CEO, Chai Chong told 18° North that his board was dissolved before seeing that selection through.

He submitted to the PAC that the dissolution occurred after the health minister overturned a decision by his board to end the tenure of then Acting CEO Mitchell and to allow another senior director to act in the role while the permanent CEO hunt continued. However, to that claim, Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton at a June 10 post-Cabinet press briefing, responded, “Ministers don’t appoint CEOs.”

It’s not clear the process by which Mitchell was later permanently appointed, and why he, having underperformed the other candidates during interviews, was installed in the role. 18° North has written to the PAC asking it to retrieve from UHWI the minutes with that information since the ones submitted didn’t cover December 2023 when Mitchell’s interim appointment was supposed to end.

Bruce, meanwhile, is facing a revolt from many of his fellow senior doctors, who have claimed he is responsible for operational problems that are contributing to the dysfunction of the hospital and overcrowding in the A&E. Patients face long delays in receiving treatment.

Following a no-confidence letter addressed to management in January that they say hasn’t been acted on, seventeen clinical heads and subheads have now put their request to Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness requesting that the SDCS position be advertised so someone else can be installed in that role. They say because Bruce had taken up a fulltime position at UWI around 2021 and can’t keep two fulltime posts, he’s merely acting in the role.

No word yet on what has become of that latest letter. One senior doctor had told
18° North, however, that if the prime minister doesn’t act, the doctors will consider industrial action.

####

Editing help by ChatGPT.
Exchange rate used is $154.99, the average sell rate on the Bank of Jamaica’s website for 2023.

Editor’s Note:

In a follow-up piece, Dorothy Hosein herself will explain why she turned down the offer. Subscribe now to see that interview first when it’s published.

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Before Hurricane Melissa ravaged western Jamaica last year, the only other post-Independence event to have wiped out two-fifths of Jamaica’s GDP was the meltdown of the financial sector in the 1990s.

The PJ Patterson-led government of the day set up the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) to bail out some financial institutions and take over others, saddling it with bad loans and some of the underlying real estate assets.

The intervention by FINSAC caused the government to bleed billions of Jamaican dollars, making it desperate for cash.

Now a confidential report that has not been previously reported publicly is showing how that desperation coupled with FINSAC having “engaged the services of an unqualified valuator, Michael McNaughton,” led to the disposal of valuable assets that were “severely under-priced,” lowering returns to the state-owned company.

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By the government accepting less, not only were taxpayers disadvantaged, according to FINSAC victim Yola Gray-Baker, but debtors like herself may have been able to get some support from the state had the assets been sold for what they were truly worth.

Instead, she argues, after being forced to sell or give up homes and businesses to pay off loans at astronomical interest rates —north of 100% in her case —stemming from the government’s high-interest rate policy of the day to combat inflation, “the debtors got nothing.”

FINSAC “Ignored Previous Valuation Reports”

The 20-page confidential report, obtained under the Access to Information Act by 18° North from the Ministry of Finance, was authored by management consultant, Dennis L. Boothe, who, himself, served as FINSAC’s Managing Director and as a director of one of its subsidiaries, Refin Trust.

At the time of the report on Dec. 11, 2008, however, Boothe was as an advisor to the then minister of finance, having ended his tenure running FINSAC between January 1997 and June 1998, according to his LinkedIn profile. Patrick Hylton had taken over.

For two major properties, the report stated that FINSAC “appears to have ignored” previous valuation reports prepared by reputable appraisers, opting instead to rely on “a single appraisal” from McNaughton, resulting in the properties being “severely underpriced.”

One of the properties was the then Mutual Life Centre, which is today the set of twin towers at the corner of Old Hope Road and Oxford Road that houses government offices like the Ministry of National Security.

According to the report, FINSAC agreed to sell the property to Michael Lee Chin’s AIC for J$650 million (US$13.4 million) in 2002 based on McNaughton’s appraisal, even though it had been previously valued in 1997 by Allison Pitter & Company at J$1.15 billion (US$32.4 million) with a replacement cost of J$3.4 billion (US$94.9 million). That same year in 1997, it was also valued by Real Estate (Consolidated) Ltd. at J$1.4 billion (US$39.5 million) with a replacement cost of J$2.8 billion (US$79 million).

AIC went on to purchase the government’s majority shareholding in National Commercial Bank (NCB) from FINSAC at a price that Boothe also determined appeared “low.” Neither Boothe nor Lee Chin responded to 18° North’s requests for comment.

Mutual Life Towers — Fire Sale or Not?

“FINSAC was aware that the offer made by AIC for the Mutual Life Centre was very low but seemed to be in a desperate hurry to sell the complex,” the report observed. In a May 20, 2002 letter to AIC, FINSAC Managing Director Patrick Hylton pointed out that the “discount rate used to value the premises was too high, and therefore depressed the value of the property.” The files indicated that the directors were also of the view that the sale price was low.

Despite the low price and the fact that the government needed cash, FINSAC turned around and sweetened the deal even more with generous terms of payment to the purchasers -- a deposit of 15% of the purchase price or J$97.5 million (US$2 million) and the remaining $552.5 million (US$11.4 million) financed by a vendor’s mortgage. This vendor’s mortgage was payable over one year after completion at a rate of 10% per annum payable in two installments.

It’s not known how or why, in the end, FINSAC accepted such a low price on such favorable terms for the Mutual Life Centre, and Hylton didn’t answer his phone or a WhatsApp message seeking comment.

However, a 2003 article in The Financial Gleaner about the sale to AIC noted that FINSAC had been trying to sell the property for almost five years.

Hylton went on to become deputy head of NCB in 2003, according to the government’s Jamaica Information Service and later assumed the top job at that bank. But in 2011, he publicly denied that the sale of NCB to AIC from FINSAC in 2002 was linked to him getting the NCB post.

Was McNaughton Held to Account?

According to the report, another commercial real estate asset, Life of Jamaica Towers on Dominica Drive, was similarly sold for a depressed price based on a single appraisal from McNaughton.

The report stated that the reports presented by McNaughton to FINSAC were not valuations and were instead titled “Property Inspection Form for Commercial Real Estate.” But according to Boothe’s report, it appeared to be common knowledge in the real estate profession that that, though unlicensed, McNaughton had been engaged to perform appraisals for FINSAC’s larger properties.

At no time was McNaughton licensed as a dealer -- he was only a registered salesman -- according to the report. Boothe outlined that on October 21, 2008, he’d gotten confirmation from the Real Estate Board that McNaughton was not registered or licensed to give any valuation or appraisal of real estate. Therefore, he concluded, McNaughton “possessed neither the requisite expertise nor qualifications to undertake such large assignments.”

Boothe recommended that an investigation be undertaken into the circumstances surrounding McNaughton’s engagement and that he be reported to the Real Estate Board so that legal action could be instituted against him for violating its regulations.

However, when contacted about whether action was ever taken against McNaughton, the Real Estate Board confirmed he wasn’t licensed to give appraisals but didn’t go further.

For his part, McNaughton was adamant he didn’t carry out a valuation of the properties but rather provided an “opinion” on the value of the properties for which he was paid. When pressed who contracted him to provide this opinion, as he claimed, McNaughton declined to answer merely stating, “it was so long ago almost 30 years now.”

We asked whether it was FINSAC that engaged his services or paid him, but McNaughton responded “no” adding, “you have your research to be done.” However, his response leaves more questions than answers like who exactly contracted him and why him of all persons to deliver an opinion on the value of the property if he was unqualified to carry out a valuation? More importantly, why did FINSAC sell the properties merely based on an opinion and not a proper valuation, as would normally be done?

A profile of McNaughton on the website of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, where he’s a board member, shows that he had worked as an independent consultant to NCB, Finsac Limited, Beal Bank, and Ocwen Financial Corporation through Dennis Joslin & Co. (McNaughton says NCB was a separate engagement.)

Dennis Joslin Jamaica, Inc. was initially engaged to administer FINSAC’s loan portfolio, according to Boothe in a separate report. The portfolio of non-performing loans was subsequently sold to Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation Inc., reportedly a subsidiary of Beal Bank based in Texas.

Not Exercising Fiduciary Responsibility

In his report, Boothe detailed FINSAC’s failure to exercise prudence in establishing the market value of several major properties by obtaining a minimum of two recent valuations, including one from the Commissioner of Lands.

He also accused the state entity of placing its commercial property holdings on the market at the same time and listing them with more than 50 real estate brokers that created “a glut in the market,” leading to the disposal of valuable assets at “bargain basement prices.”

He also outlined how, for the disposal of some assets, FINSAC appeared to have disregarded the long-established practice adopted by the government of appointing divestment committees under the guidance of the state-owned Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) despite evidence that, where these committees were used in offloading other assets, “the process appeared to have been carefully planned, transparent and resulted in a fair purchase price.”

Bitter Medicine for FINSAC Victims

To Gray-Baker, the revelation about the engagement of McNaughton is still relevant today as she is hoping to convince the government this year that victims should receive compensation.

According to Boothe’s report, having bailed out the banks, FINSAC had initially considered revitalizing some businesses that had been affected by the government’s high-interest rate policy in the 1990s, which would have involved restructuring loans—an initiative they had begun to pursue. However,” the exercise was made difficult” when the non-performing loans were eventually sold to a foreign collections agency, files were transferred offsite and staff left, which hindered the retrieval of information.

Though the Bruce Golding-led government had established a Commission of Enquiry into FINSAC back in 2008, no final report has been forthcoming and may never come. Only submissions to the Enquiry were made public on the Ministry of Finance’s website in 2024.

According to then Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke, the Cabinet lost confidence in the ability of the commissioners to deliver a final report even after making additional injections of cash.

Without the final report, it’s been difficult for the victims to know where culpability rests, and how, even decades later, they can go about getting financial relief.

With Boothe concluding that in the process of disposal of assets, “there were clear instances of incompetence and poor judgment on the part of the board and management of FINSAC,” this newly-unearthed document may go some of the way in helping fill the information gap for some FINSAC victims.

####

With reporting by Zahra Burton.

Editor’s Notes:

Exchange rates used for the real estate values for 2002 and 1997 are J$48.56 and J$35.45, respectively. These are the average sell rates on the Bank of Jamaica’s website for each of those years.

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The effort by senior clinicians at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) to get Dr. Carl Bruce replaced as the chief doctor has escalated to the level of the prime minister, 18° North has learned.

This follows their failed attempts over the last several months to convince the hospital’s board and management to act.

According to one of the senior doctors, who didn’t want to be named, a formal letter was sent to Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness almost three weeks ago signed by 17 clinical heads and subheads.

Dr. Myrton Smith, the UHWI representative of the Association of Government Medical Consultants, a union body, wouldn’t comment as to whether the letter was sent, saying only that as far as the position of Senior Director Clinical Services (SDCS), “We can’t say we’ve had significant feedback regarding the position we had taken so we await that feedback from the management…The consultants remain resolute that we need to see some tangible changes to the leadership structure.”

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The Details of the Letter

In a May 18 unsigned version of the letter to Holness seen by 18° North, the consultants referenced the Auditor General’s report made public in January that highlighted a slew of procurement breaches at the hospital. CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell has gone on accrued leave amid a fraud squad investigation. (Mitchell said “no response” when asked to comment on the report and has refused to appear before the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) probing operations at UHWI.)

In the letter, the clinicians outlined that they’d been flagging some of the very same issues for years, and “are deeply concerned and enraged by the hospital management’s slow pace of implementation of changes” to ensure the problems don’t recur.

One of their main concerns is the role of the SDCS, which they claim is contributing to the dysfunction as it is now functioning.

The post is understood to be occupied by Bruce. However, in the letter, the senior doctors refer to “the Acting SDCS” —without calling his name — and requested that the position be advertised and filled as soon as possible. They say most of them “have lost confidence in the current Chair of the Medical Committee”—also understood to be Bruce — since that post is usually held by the SDCS.

Most news reports over the past decade have referred to Bruce as the hospital’s Medical Chief of Staff (MCS), a title appearing as far back as in UHWI’s 2010–2011 annual report, before he was in the role. However, the clinicians argue the title is not officially used in Jamaica’s healthcare system, and in February, then Acting CEO Eric Hosin directed staff to stop using it, though he didn’t offer a replacement title. (The oldest annual report on file at the Parliament’s library, from 1961, uses the title Chief Medical Officer.)

According to the letter to the prime minister, the SDCS is a full-time hospital post. When Bruce took up a full-time job at the University of the West Indies (UWI) around 2021, the clinicians wrote, he should have vacated the SDCS post “in keeping with the established practice for all Medical Consultants employed by the UHWI.” Instead, they claim he has remained in the role “illegitimately,” and accused him of disrespecting staff, undermining clinical heads and overruling their procurement recommendations even in areas outside of his expertise.

“The current Board of Management is aware of this issue, as have other Hospital Boards before this one,” the letter lays out. “The Human Resources Subcommittee of the Board has not only failed to direct the changes needed to resolve this issue but have instead attempted to find ways to defend the status quo.”

Minutes of the Human Resources Subcommittee of the UHWI board from 2023 shared with the Parliament this week confirm that Senior Director of HR Duane Nelson believed Bruce was performing “commendable” duties as SDCS, but there were, in fact, some discussions about whether the chief doctor could legitimately hold two full-time jobs simultaneously.

As to how that matter was resolved, Nelson told 18° North on June 19 he would respond through the new Acting CEO, Lt. Col. Dr. Sydney Powell, who took over after Hosin demitted office on June 10. However, that answer hasn’t yet come.

Bruce’s Tenure Under A Cloud

Earlier this year, a Jan. 16, 2026 no-confidence letter to then Acting CEO Hosin signed by 13 clinical heads accused Bruce of questionable management practices, including cancelling contracts without consultation, withholding payments to junior doctors, and being partly responsible for operational problems that contribute to overcrowding in the Accident and Emergency department.

Bruce was contacted for comment on the allegations in that letter and the one to the prime minister, but he didn’t respond.

The Jan. 16 letter, which also didn’t name him and only referred to the SDCS without the “Acting” designation, also referenced allegations of verbal and physical abuse dating back to 2018, and failures by the hospital to properly investigate the matters. However, the minutes of the HR subcommittee show that, in at least one such case from 2023 involving a nurse in the ICU, UHWI did investigate and a determination was made that “there was no charge to be answered.”

Court records show that a nurse later filed a lawsuit against Bruce and the hospital alleging assault and battery arising from an incident in the ICU during the same general period, though it’s not confirmed that this is the same matter referenced in the HR subcommittee minutes.

Su2024cv01959 Further Amended Claim Form Latoya Campbell V Dr Carl Bruce & University Hospital Board Management

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The Jan. 16 letter did refer to two court cases against Bruce — one widely known to be criminal — which should disqualify him from remaining as the public image of the hospital. According to the Staff Orders for the Public Service, “Where an officer has been, or is about to be charged with a criminal offence, he/she may be interdicted from duty on half, quarter or no salary, pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.”

The Response of Management, the Board and the Health Minister

On Feb. 27, 2026, 18° North reported that then Acting CEO Hosin, Board Chairman Patrick Hylton, and UWI, Mona Principal Densil Williams, had requested from clinicians two additional weeks to investigate complaints raised by clinical staff about Bruce in the Jan. 16 letter.

Given that several months have passed and the senior doctors say not much progress has been made, 18° North on June 17 asked Hosin, who remains on the UHWI board, as well as UHWI board chairman Patrick Hylton, how come they hadn’t acted to replace Bruce given all the complaints, but neither of the two responded.

Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton, meanwhile, distanced himself from the matter when asked at a June 10 post-Cabinet press briefing whether he still supports Bruce despite the complaints. He responded, “Ministers don’t appoint Chief Medical Officers…I think that’s his title—Dr. Bruce—either Chief Medical or Medical Chief of Staff, and I believe he held that position before I became minister. So again, that should clarify that.”

The unnamed senior doctor dismissed that response and suggested that Bruce’s long-standing friendship with Tufton may be influencing the lack of action.

The senior doctor hopes the letter to the prime minister will lead to change, warning that if there is no response later this month, he and his fellow doctors may consider industrial action.

“We cannot guarantee continued normalcy,” the letter had subtly threatened if there’s not decisive action.

Prime Minister Holness hasn’t responded to an email asking if he will accede to the senior doctors’ requests.

####

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Jamaica’s Integrity Commission has ruled that Dr. Andrew Wheatley, Minister Without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for science, technology, and special projects is to be charged for illicit enrichment.

The Commission’s Director of Corruption Prosecution also ruled that he be charged with knowingly making a false statement, and failing, without reasonable cause, to provide information as required, according to documents tabled in the parliament on Wednesday.

The investigation concerned Wheatley’s statutory declarations submitted to the Commission for the years 2010 to 2022, mostly while he was Member of Parliament for St. Catherine South Central under the governing Jamaica Labour Party. The relevant period for the illicit enrichment calculations, however, was between 2013 and 2022.

The Commission found that Wheatley was in possession of assets disproportionate to his lawful earnings to the tune of $164 million.

This was based on a calculation putting Wheatley’s total income at approximately $187 million, while his application—which includes closing balances in bank and investment accounts, loan repayments, investments, property and motor vehicle acquisitions and expenses — amounted to around $351 million ($187 million - $351 million = -$164 million).

According to the investigation report, Wheatley failed to provide an explanation which satisfies section 14(5) of the Corruption Prevention Act as to how he came by said assets. The investigation also revealed that Wheatley held assets which he failed to include in his statutory declarations in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2021.

The Commission said the “foregoing omissions prima facie constitute offences under section 43(2)(a) of the ICA (Integrity Commission Act) and section 15(1)(b) of the Parliament (Integrity of Members) Act.”

Transactions Questioned by the Commission

There were extensive assets, liabilities, gifts and income that Wheatley declared in his statutory declarations but failed to provide additional information on when this was requested by the Director of Information and Complaints. The Commission said, it would appear he also failed to disclose an investment in a company, the particulars relating to the subdivision into lots and development and divestment of a plot of land that he jointly owned, and some commercial loans.

Among the gifts the Commission had questions about were six apartments.

The six apartments appear to have been part of a development on land acquired at East Kirkland Heights (Stirling Castle) by Wheatley and one Patrick Phipps in October 2011 with no registered mortgage.

In 2013, the property was sub-divided and developed into 20 strata lots, 14 of which were sold between 2014 and 2018, which wasn’t reflected in Wheatley’s statutory declarations for the period 2013 to 2018. In 2018, however, the report states, Wheatley began declaring rental income from six apartments in Sterling Castle, St. Andrew, which Wheatley had reported were acquired by way of “gift,” which he was asked to explain.

Wheatley responded to the Commission that sometime in 2010, Phipps, a building contractor who he’s known over the years, invited him to form a joint venture partnership to carry out housing developments. His role and function were to provide management of the JV, negotiate loans, identify development properties for acquisition, ensure timely approvals and sales, and, where possible contribute cash, which he did once by taking out a loan that was subsequently repaid by the JV.

Phipps’ role, meanwhile, was to negotiate builders’ credits, bank financing and provide cash equity where required by the financial institution.

Wheatley explained that his compensation was to be in the form of units in the completed development. This project happened to be one of the first projects undertaken. He explained that the six units represented his share of the profits and added that, since the titles were registered in both our names and only required removal of Phipps’ name, the transaction was annotated on the titles by the lawyers as “transfer by way of gift.”

Wheatley also indicated that the acquisition of the land was funded solely by Phipps, which Phipps confirmed. This caused the Commission to summarize that, “In essence, Dr. Wheatley, having not contributed any capital to the joint venture received six (6) units as compensation therefrom.”

Among Wheatley’s other properties acquired were two properties in Florida in the United States; a property in Drax Hall in St. Ann; lands in St. Elizabeth; and a piece of land in Stilwell. He also had investments in several companies including Techem Supplies; Price Tech Limited; Prosperity Realtor Company Limited; and Western Medical Centre.

Wheatley claimed to have purchased the Drax Hall property partly with earnings from Western Medical of which he was the sole proprietor. The business was subsequently closed in 2013, but not before receiving income of $45 million from the company between 2010 and 2013, $13 million of which, he said, was received in 2013 from the proceeds of the sale of the business.

Wheatley provided financial statements showing the company had earned revenue ranging from around $15 million to $26.7 between 2010 and 2013 with salary and wages ranging from $12.9 million to $17 million. An examination of its tax filings by the Commission, however, showed that in some years during the relevant period, the company filed nil tax returns, which is usually interpreted to mean that the business entity had not declared any income or expenses on the form even though Western Medical was reported by Wheatley to have had earnings.

For this, the DI referred the investigation report to the Tax Administration of Jamaica for an assessment to be made, and where necessary, for penalties to be imposed.

Wheatley Slaps Back

In a statement released to the media, through his attorney, Wheatley rejected as “patently false, inaccurate and grossly misleading” the Commission's finding regarding the $164 million disproportionality concerning his assets compared to his lawful earnings.

Wheatley called it “odd, unreasonable and unfair that in arriving at his conclusion, the Director of Investigations clearly decided not to take into account approximately 168-million in rental income which I lawfully accumulated and declared over the nine years.”

Wheatley continued that the Director of Investigation also failed to take into consideration “the lawful and verifiable payment sources utilized in respect of the repayment of approximately $50 million in loans obtained from financial institutions in the pursuit of my real estate business.”

As far as the six apartments which were declared to the Commission as gifts, Wheatley stated, “I entered into a joint venture which involved the purchase of land for development purposes. The initial arrangement with my business partner was to split ownership of the development along the lines of a 50/50 ratio. I was unable to meet my obligations and consequently the arrangement was adjusted to a 70 to 30 allocation. I managed the construction and negotiated credit. My 30 percent share of the development would amount to the proceeds of sale of six units. Instead of taking value in cash, I chose to have properties transferred to me. The Attorneys-at-Law handling the Joint Venture prepared the transfer indicating it was by way of a gift. The Director of Investigations is apparently not aware that, in the real estate industry, such a transaction is not an unusual commercial arrangement which developers may lawfully enter into.”

On the recommendation that he be charged for illicit enrichment along with the other charges, he said it will be “vigorously contested.”

Wheatley, who says he’s been cooperating with the investigation, attested, “I have lawfully acquired every dollar and every asset that I own. I intend to defend my reputation via the Court and am confident of a positive outcome.”

“There is no credible evidence to support the allegation that I acquired my earning by unlawful means and,” Wheatley said. “Should additional proof of this was required by the Director of Investigation, all he had to do is ask.”

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A new interim chief executive has been named at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) as Eric Hosin vacated the job, as expected, on June 10.

The new acting head is the Senior Medical Officer at the Port Maria Hospital Lt. Colonel Dr. Sydney Powell, who is expected to serve for six months.

“I’m on secondment. I will be going back to my job in a couple of months,” said Powell who was reached by phone June 11 by 18° North and asked about how he felt about being chosen for the job given the weight of the responsibility running UHWI.

“Every shoes I wear is big,” Powell said, and he went on to highlight his post at the Port Maria Hospital as well as his 20 years at the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) where he oversaw the health of soldiers and provided strategic medical advice to the JDF. When asked about his priorities as the new interim CEO, he said he would have to call back as he was in the barber’s chair, but he didn’t.

One former colleague at the JDF, who wasn’t authorized to speak, described Powell as a “very good choice” to run UHWI. “He is a no-nonsense person and problem solver, so hopefully [he] will be able to straighten out alot of things there.”

However, inside UHWI, one senior doctor, who didn’t want to be named, expressed disappointment with the choice saying doctors generally don’t make good administrators, while Hosin, who used to run insurance company Guardian Group, was doing “an excellent job.”

“We would have wanted someone from Corporate Jamaica,” the senior doctor said. “But we’re gonna give him the space to prove himself.”

The post of CEO has taken on new importance as an Auditor General’s report made public in January uncovered a slew of procurement issues at the hospital, including no submitted annual reports and audited financial statements for 2019-20 to 2024-25 detailing how approximately $65 billion in subventions were used; major gaps in procurement planning; no procurement documentation for 51 contracts valuing $521 million; and the hospital inappropriately using its tax-exempt status to import goods for private companies duty-free, resulting in $23 million in lost revenue to the government.

UHWI CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell has since gone on accrued leave, though it wasn’t clear the length of his vacation. Mitchell said “no response” when asked to comment on the report by 18° North. Though still on a government salary, he has refused to appear before the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which has been probing the operations of UHWI, on the advice of his lawyer.

Four Named to the Board

Four persons have also been named to the UHWI board, which is led by former NCB Financial Group CEO Patrick Hylton.

According to documents tabled in the parliament on June 3, Cabinet approved the appointments of pediatrician Lisa Franklin-Banton and neonatologist Jillian Lewis; former Jamaica Bankers Association President and NCB banking executive Septimus Blake; and Michelle Miller, who will be an ex-officio member representing the Financial Secretary.

The tabling of the appointments comes four months after the decision was taken by Cabinet on Feb. 9. They will serve from that date until Oct. 12, 2028, when the tenure of the current board expires.

Two months ago, 18° North had made an Access to Information request of Hosin for the names of the current board members that has gone unanswered despite the 30-day timeframe in law for delivery of responses. According to a report made public in May from a review committee set up earlier in the year to examine the systemic challenges of UHWI and make recommendations for improvements, the 18-member board comprises ten persons, including two ex-officio persons, appointed by the Minister of Health who is Dr. Christopher Tufton. The University of the West Indies (UWI) appoints another eight members, including four ex officio ones.

Board member Blake wouldn’t divulge any of the names of the board members but confirmed, after being nudged by 18° North on June 4, that the following persons were indeed on the board: Principal of the UWI, Mona, Densil Williams; Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at UWI, Mona, Prof. Joseph Plummer; Hosin, who will remain a director; Dr. Ronald Robinson, Former Senator and State Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Bruce Golding-led government; and the chief doctor at UHWI Dr. Carl Bruce, who has been on the board for more than a decade and was appointed under a previous government. The UHWI website lists him as an ex-officio member seemingly because of his role.

18° North is still trying to confirm who the other members are and will report the information once the full board is known.

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Disclaimer: Global Reporters for the Caribbean, the parent company of 18° North, had provided production services to UHWI in around 2018.

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Conflicting explanations are casting new light on how the charity that operates the Tony Thwaites Wing at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) came to be used to facilitate duty-free imports for about J$5 billion (US$33 million) worth of goods, including some it didn’t own.

The review by the Auditor General’s Department (AudGen) of nearly 3,000 UHWI import entries from 2019 to 2025 made public in January showed how the charity, University Hospital of the West Indies Private Wing, was listed as the importer in all cases, along with its Taxpayer Registration Number (TRN), enabling an estimated J$1.49 billion (US$9.9 million) in customs duties to be waived even for some items belonging to private companies.

While the chairman of the charity, Mark Thwaites, denies approving the use of the charity in this way, his own explanation, the AudGen’s findings, financial records and 18° North’s interview with the customs broker raise questions about whether the charity itself enabled the environment for breaches and should be sanctioned.

Far less attention has been paid to the role of the Private Wing until now.

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The AudGen analyzed 20 import entries in detail and found problems with eight.

Among those eight, were transactions involving two companies, which the public now knows to be Supreme Laundry Services and JACDEN Group of Companies, the latter being owned by a sitting People’s National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament, Dennis Gordon.

The AudGen found that the Private Wing in 2023 and 2024 was listed as the importer of laundry equipment, office furniture and dialysis machines for both companies altogether valued at about J$68.6 million (US$454,998), generating J$16.7 million (US$110,765) in duty waivers.

Auditors found no evidence that the imports were ever received or used at UHWI, yet still the hospital paid out around J$1.9 million (US$12,585) in other customs taxes and fees.

How the Private Wing’s Tax-Exempt Status Came to Be Used

In a recent interview with 18° North, Thwaites offered a shifting explanation for how the charity’s tax-exempt status came to be used.

“The acts that were facilitated were not approved by us,” he said at first.

Pressed further, he said the Private Wing’s manager may have assisted UHWI “once” in clearing a shipment pre-2019, before the practice continued “without our explicit approval.”

He also said the ability for this to have happened was because the charity and UHWI shared the same customs broker at the time.

“We have changed the broker,” he said. “We cannot have the same brokerage as UHWI.”

The Broker’s Account

The customs broker, Leon Senior of Executive Partners, says he wasn’t made aware he had been changed but had instead been instructed by the Private Wing’s lawyer to no longer use the tax-exempt status of the Private Wing to clear hospital goods, and he has complied.

He says he has handled imports for both UHWI and the Private Wing for about 25 years, though he didn’t handle the shipment for JACDEN.

Senior says he couldn’t have used the charity’s TRN and Tax Compliance Certificate (TCC) number, which is also required to clear goods duty-free, without authorization.

“I called Private Wing and said the hospital called me to use your TCC, and she said, ‘Go ahead, we had a meeting,’” Senior said, referring to a conversation years ago with the late manager of the Private Wing who died in 2022.

However, he didn’t answer when asked in a later WhatsApp message whether that authorization was only for one shipment or multiple ones.

How Application of Tax-Exempt Status Is Supposed to Work

At an April 28 Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing before Parliament, Acting Commissioner of Customs Kirk Benjamin suggested that a declaration is required from the tax-exempt entity stating that imported goods are for its use in order for duties to be waived.

Yet, the AudGen’s report only referenced declarations from UHWI—not the Private Wing—even though the charity was listed as one of the importers.

When asked by email whether Customs had received the required declarations from the Private Wing before clearing the goods and whether that would have been required, Customs claimed it wouldn’t be responding to 18° North due to confidentiality.

It’s since emerged from the PAC hearings that UHWI, though normally exempt from customs duty and GCT (sales tax) as a public body, hadn’t had a TCC since 2015 because it owed billions of dollars in other taxes and so was hampered in clearing goods duty-free on its own.

The Private Wing, being a registered charity with tax-exempt status and a similar name to UHWI, eventually became the hospital's mechanism to access those benefits.

Why Was UHWI Using Private Wing’s Tax-Exempt Status

Asked during the hearing whether Customs, having provided a list of UHWI’s and Private Wing’s imports to the Parliament, was satisfied that the goods were legitimately for UHWI, Benjamin said his team would be conducting an audit to make that determination.

Even if the goods were for UHWI, Benjamin told 18° North after the hearing, “You can’t use your status to bring in goods for someone else.”

But inside the hearing, he had suggested that permissibility could depend on a charity’s mandate. Section 5(2)(a) of the Customs Act allows approved charities to import goods duty-free if the Commissioner is satisfied they are required for the organization’s charitable purposes.

In this case, however, it doesn’t appear to have been the Private Wing who was the true importer maintaining control over the transaction. It was more like the Private Wing’s tax-exempt status being used by a related entity, which was then further used to benefit private companies. Under Jamaican law, the fraudulent use of another’s tax identification details to commit an offence can attract criminal penalties, as does using a charity for a purpose outside of its charitable mandate. Making or causing to be made a false declaration to Customs can also carry hefty financial penalties.

Background

The UHWI Private Wing began operations in 1990 and is situated at the hospital.

Though set up as a separate legal entity, the Private Wing lists the hospital as a shareholder, and, according to its website, it operates “interdependently” with UHWI.

The Private Wing was originally financed by individual donors and major corporations like National Commercial Bank, GraceKennedy and Wray & Nephew Ltd. It generates revenue from fee-paying patients seeking upgraded amenities and recorded a J$196.4 million (US$1.3 million) net profit in its 2024 financial year, the latest on file at the Companies Office.

Some of its revenue is used to pay for monthly use of the hospital’s senior doctors, nursing staff and equipment provided to the Private Wing, according to Thwaites. He says more than a billion dollars’ worth of equipment has also been donated to the hospital over the years.

Those activities appear consistent with the stated mandate of the Private Wing, which includes helping provide financing to the hospital and acquiring equipment for the benefit of itself, UHWI and its patients.

But while supporting the hospital on some fronts, some practices of the Private Wing may have crossed legal and governance lines.

Loan Agreements That Helped UHWI Bypass Procurement Rules

According to its financials, for at least two decades, the Private Wing has been making financial outlays on behalf of the hospital and then deducting these amounts from the monthly monies it owes UHWI.

The problem with this is that UHWI, as a public institution, is bound by government procurement rules designed to promote competition among suppliers, ensuring the best value for money, while the Private Wing has more flexibility in how it acquires services and goods.

In its report, the AudGen flagged two deals in June 2019 and March 2023 worth J$91.66 million (US$607,946) and US$354,334 (J$53.4 million), respectively where the Private Wing purchased a Philips Digital Diagnost C50 Dual Panel machine and mobile C-Arm equipment for UHWI with bank financing. Repayment was to be deducted from future payments owed to the hospital.

Thwaites defended the loan agreements, saying the hospital had made urgent requests for equipment it couldn’t afford. “We save them because they get the time to pay it off,” he said.

But while framed as support, the AudGen said the arrangements resulted in UHWI “bypassing procurement processes” to acquire equipment despite the finance ministry’s warning that the proposed agreement fell outside procurement rules and required a detailed submission before sign-off. The AudGen said there was no indication that this was done.

A source told 18° North that both purchases were made through International Med-X, which UHWI had recommended to the Private Wing. While UHWI didn’t confirm that, co-owner Chris Isley acknowledged the sales and said the Florida-based company is Jamaica’s authorized dealer for Philips.

That doesn’t mean, however, that there weren’t other brands UHWI could have explored, and Thwaites acknowledged that the Private Wing doesn’t follow public procurement rules.

But International Med-X appears to have enjoyed preferred standing with UHWI. According to the Integrity Commission’s contracts database, the company received 51 UHWI contracts worth about $120 million (US$1.1 million) between 2010 and 2020, all awarded via sole source or direct contracting.

Possible Breaches of the Public Procurement Law

The AudGen highlighted that it was weaknesses in UHWI’s procurement planning that had “led to an ad hoc approach that often resulted in the frequent use of sole-source procurement methods and breaches of established regulations governing public procurement.”

The Public Procurement Act of 2015 penalizes anyone who engages in any fraudulent practices to avoid the requirements of the Act with a fine of up to three million dollars and/or up to three years in prison.

While further investigations may be necessary to determine whether there were violations of this Act by the Private Wing, coming out of the AudGen’s report, Thwaites said, things will be different now. He said, at the time, the Private Wing didn’t know it was helping the hospital flout the rules.

“We are going to make sure they follow what they need to follow,” he said.

Need for Scrutiny

The way in which the charity has been operating has drawn scrutiny from governance advocates.

“You can’t have your TRN being used by somebody and you don’t know about it,” Robert Stephens of the Advocates Network said. “What’s the use of the damn law if you’re going to set up systems to circumvent them?”

Under the Charities Act, 2013 a charity’s status can be suspended or revoked not only for serious crimes like fraud or dishonesty but also conduct that harms public trust.

The Makeup of the Board

The Private Wing’s board has included some of Jamaica’s most prominent business leaders over the years, including R. Danny Williams, a former Cabinet minister and insurance executive, who died in September 2023, and William McConnell of J. Wray & Nephew fame who passed away in 2018.

Along with Thwaites, company documents list the charity’s current directors as Andrea Sutherland, Everton McDonald, Laurene Augier, Derek Mitchell, Vikram Dhiman, William David McConnell, Helen Myers, and Patrick Williams —names that stand out in the world of hospital administration, accounting, medicine and business, raising questions about how such controversial practices continued for so long under the watch of such an experienced board.

Reached by phone, McDonald referred questions to Thwaites, while Williams said he was “woefully ignorant of what is going on,” that he doesn’t listen to news reports and that when he does go to the meetings, “invariably, I’m late.” The others either weren’t reached or didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.

Neither the Department of Co-operatives and Friendly Societies which oversees charities, the Integrity Commission which investigates procurement breaches, or the Tax Administration Jamaica which grants tax-exempt status, has answered whether they plan to take any enforcement action against the Private Wing. Benjamin of Jamaica Customs declined to say if the Private Wing is part of any investigation.

The Private Wing didn’t answer whether it had reported the alleged misuse of its tax-exempt status to the police.

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Editor’s Notes

Writing and editing help and graphic creation by ChatGPT.

The UHWI now has a temporary TCC of its own.

The exchange rate used to convert the contract awards database amounts between 2010-2020 is J$113.86:US$1, based on the average of the average sell rate for each of those years on the Bank of Jamaica website. All other rates were calculated based on the average of the average sell rates for each of the years 2019 to 2025, which equates to J$150.77:US$1.

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UHWI and Its Chief Doctor, Carl Bruce, Sued Neurosurgeon Roger Hunter for Defamation Mere Months Before Wider Hospital Controversies Mounted

Fresh Leadership Crisis Emerges at UHWI as Doctors and Nurses Move Against Chief Clinician, Dr. Carl Bruce

A lawsuit filed by the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and its chief doctor, Carl Bruce, is seeking unspecified damages, a retraction and an apology from neurosurgeon Dr. Roger Hunter for allegedly making defamatory statements against them on social media and an injunction requiring that all those comments be deleted and that he be restrained from making any further defamatory statements about them.

Details of the suit, originally filed on Sept. 29, 2025, were delayed in being uploaded to the court’s electronic system for months and only became known after 18° North visited the Supreme Court on Monday.

In the claim, Bruce, who is also a neurosurgeon, complained that on multiple occasions beginning in April 2025, Hunter made false and defamatory statements on social media, including on a voicenote, calling him names like “bully,” “unrepentant criminal,” and “repeated violence producer,” and challenged his qualifications and claimed that he improperly benefited from contracts awarded to a company called Medical Technologies Limited.

Meanwhile, UHWI’s CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell, complained that Hunter made statements alleging that the publicly funded hospital is “corrupt,” “fails to achieve minimum standards,” is involved in “serious systemic failures,” and has failed to hold Bruce accountable for his actions.

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But in a turn of events since then, Mitchell has proceeded on accrued leave amid a police fraud squad investigation into a slew of procurement breaches flagged in an Auditor General’s report focused on UHWI that was made public on Jan. 14, 2026. Mitchell told 18° North “no response” when asked to comment on the report.

Meanwhile, last month, 18° North reported that genealogy records point to Bruce as having a family connection to Medical Technologies (MEDITECH) Limited, which was able to win tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the hospital between 2008 and 2020—the vast majority with only one bid received, which is allowed under certain circumstances. Three industry insiders —including MEDITECH’s former CEO and Hunter - have also hinted or alleged that Bruce, himself, is financially connected to the company. However, Bruce has reportedly denied having any ownership in MEDITECH, according to The Observer.

As Medical Chief of Staff in charge of clinical care at the hospital for around ten years, Bruce is an ex-officio member of the UHWI board of management, which sometimes interrogates procurement decisions, though it’s not known if any of MEDITECH’S contracts with UHWI were ever discussed at the board level. Before becoming Medical Chief of Staff, he was already a member of the board, listed as having served on its procurement committee beginning in May 2014, according to UHWI’s 2013-2014 annual report. It’s not clear when he ceased being a member of that committee. (18° North has requested that information.)

Jamaica’s Public Procurement Act, 2015 requires procuring entities to exclude participants where a conflict of interest is likely to impair the integrity of proceedings and outlines penalties for unlawful influence or deception in procurement processes, including a fine of up to three million dollars, and, or imprisonment for up to three years. There has been no finding that these provisions were breached in relation to Bruce, MEDITECH or UHWI.

Neither Bruce nor the hospital answered when asked if he had declared this apparent conflict of interest or recused himself from any discussions involving the company.

Doctors’ Complaints Against Bruce

Bruce is also now facing a revolt from the clinical staff at the hospital, which he oversees.

On Feb. 27, 18° North reported that UHWI interim CEO Eric Hosin, Board Chairman Patrick Hylton, and University of the West Indies, Mona Principal Densil Williams, had requested two additional weeks to investigate complaints raised by clinical staff about Bruce in a Jan. 16, 2026 letter signed by 13 clinical heads at the hospital, which is more than half of the full cohort of clinical heads at the facility.

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The letter of no confidence outlined a series of complaints about the management style and human resources practices of the Senior Director of Clinical Services (SDCS), understood to be Bruce. However, the letter didn’t name him. It’s understood that the letter referred to Bruce as the SDCS because the clinicians contend that the Medical Chief of Staff title is not used in the Jamaican healthcare system. (A Feb. 27, 2026 memo from UHWI Acting CEO Eric Hosin seen by 18° North instructed members of staff to stop using the term Medical Chief of Staff but didn’t say what term should be used instead.)

Among a litany of other issues, the letter references three complaints alleging verbal and physical abuse of staff by the SDCS and criticizes what signatories describe as failures by the hospital to properly investigate the matters. 18° North has not independently verified the allegations, and no findings of wrongdoing have been publicly announced.

Bruce was contacted for comment on the allegations in the letter, but he didn’t respond.

The letter also notes that two court cases involving allegations of abuse and assault by the SDCS are currently before the courts, and therefore the SDCS “should not remain as the public image” of the hospital while those matters are unresolved.

One of those cases stems from a 2007 alleged altercation involving the same neurosurgeon Hunter. Hunter was last May suspended from practicing for a year by the Medical Council of Jamaica (MCJ) — the public body that disciplines doctors — in part because of the voicenote, according to meeting minutes obtained under the Access to Information Act. The MCJ, meanwhile, hasn’t announced any action against Bruce.

Hunter, for his part, told 18° North he hasn’t been served with the September 2025 suit from Bruce and UHWI, but was adamant he wouldn’t be apologizing.

“Justice is still alive in Jamaica, and justice will know what to do with that suit,” Hunter said.

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As a journalist acutely aware of the abysmal state of the industry, as soon as I saw the headline of Peter Espeut’s Feb. 6, 2026 column “Needed: Investigative Journalism”, I was invested. Espeut paints a dismal yet accurate picture of the industry: one that is in dire need of the funding, time and commitment necessary to produce quality journalism that holds those in power to account. He also criticizes media houses for their allegiances to political parties and merely churning out press releases, both symptoms of an industry in crisis. But while the problem was accurately portrayed by him, any solutions were lacking.

Before I proceed, I will define my terms. An investigative journalist differs from a “regular” journalist, who may report daily on any number of occurrences, from a fire to a judicial outcome to crime. They tell people what is happening, provide valuable and verified information, and paint a picture of the local, regional and international community.

An investigative journalist is a rare breed, someone who is willing to spend many hours reading documents, conducting surveillance and interviewing dozens, if not hundreds of people. Investigative journalism provides context, and consists of tedious factchecking, reading budget documents and searching archives. It is hard work, and work that is expensive for any outlet given the time it takes to complete an investigation. To spell it out further, the high expenses can be attributed to the journalist’s wages. If an investigation takes years, which many do, it is difficult to convince a media house to commit to the expenditure if there is no guarantee of a particular outcome.

Yet, investigative journalists ultimately “play a watchdog role in society by calling out such illicit activities and bringing them, not only to the attention of the public, but often to the attention of law enforcement and regulatory authorities,” according to a 2022 European Union academic paper.

Investigative journalism, and journalism as a body of work, are both essential pillars of a healthy democracy. They are a “critical part of the checks and balances that make democracy work,” Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz has said. Imagine if there were no journalists, no new, reliable information provided to you every day. How could you make decisions? How could you trust authorities? How would you know what is happening in your neighborhood, your country, and the world?

Given the rise of authoritarianism and the prevalence of involvement of big tech in the dissemination of information, this scenario is unfortunately becoming more of a reality.

Therefore, it is necessary to address the source of degradation in the industry.

It is common knowledge that the media landscape has been decimated since the advent of big tech and companies like Google and Facebook. Advertising dollars have disappeared, leading journalists and companies to get creative. Some business models for some legacy media houses, such as subscriptions, are working. (In Jamaica, most of the main legacy media houses are in crisis- Radio Jamaica Limited recently received court approval for a corporate restructuring that will take two radio stations off the air temporarily).

Some journalists are finding success with platforms such as Substack. However, as AI is causing another monumental shift in the ground on which journalism stands, the industry is suffering.

Academia and the private and non-profit sectors have proposed solutions, and while most come with downsides, most are worth trying.

These include government involvement in the provision of news, either through tax subsidies or direct investment; legislating big tech to pay for the journalism they disseminate on their platforms; the establishment of commissions to determine best practices to save the industry; public education campaigns surrounding media literacy and the importance of journalism in a democracy; appealing to large news outlets to work together to develop propositions to advertisers that will become viable again, and relaxing antitrust rules for news organizations so they can negotiate with big tech for appropriate fees for the use of their content. (Some of these suggestions are taken from this UNESCO paper).

In the Jamaican context, some of these suggestions are worth considering. However, this requires the will to support journalism, which requires an increase in media literacy, as well as the acknowledgment of journalism as a public good. Unfortunately, rabid and blind partisanship remains a barrier to this. Partisanship also remains a barrier to the investment of public funds in the provision of journalism, as Jamaicans would likely be suspicious of any news created with public funds. However, as Jamaica matures as a democracy, which it indeed is, this will likely become a viable option, especially as the country’s finances continue their trajectory on a path to more predictability and stability.

A Jamaican solution could involve the creation of a non-profit entity that receives funding from the government or other non-state actors. In order to circumvent inevitable accusations of bias and cronyism, it could be administered by the Press Association of Jamaica or independent, veteran journalists. Its sole mandate would be to support investigative journalism and ultimately root out the corruption that continues to plague the country. Such an entity would likely also attract financial and institutional support of other countries or international partners with similar goals. In order to encourage transparency and eliminate accusations of partisanship, this entity would be subjected to rigorous checks and balances and journalists would be invited to submit applications for projects they would like to pursue. Its annual financial statements would remain in the public realm for scrutiny. Ideally, this non-profit would be responsible for the creation of multiple investigations on an annual basis that focus on accountability and corruption.

In conclusion, I have hoped to fill in the gaps left by Mr. Espeut’s column. I hope to have provided some solutions, that while not immediate, may address the state of the industry on a longer-term basis. The future of Jamaica depends on it.

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Kate Chappell has, in the past, contributed stories to 18° North.

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Many years ago, I was sitting in the office of my doctor, who visibly wrestled with which lab to refer me to in order to get some basic bloodwork done. “Where should I send you to?” she openly asked herself.

Sometime before, she had easily referred my mom to a more expensive lab outside her office building for similar basic bloodwork even though one was situated a few steps from her office that offered a substantial discount to patients of doctors in that building — like her.

I sat there puzzled: why is this a headscratcher?

I had two thoughts: Maybe she thinks I don’t have as much money as my mom and would therefore benefit from the savings? Or…did she have a stake in the lab which she didn’t want to disclose and thought better than to refer me there because I am an investigative reporter?

To her credit, she referred me to the cheaper, more convenient lab. However, upon later research, I found that indeed, my doctor, who has now passed away, was professionally connected to the more expensive lab.

I thought to myself, “She should be disclosing this to her patients. My mom paid more for no good reason.” I told my mom but not my doctor because I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.

But now, years later, I see that what I experienced as a small ethical lapse was actually a window into a bigger problem now surfacing at Jamaica’s premier publicly-funded hospital, University Hospital of the West indies (UHWI).

And just as that incident planted a seed of distrust in me of the medical profession, this bigger issue threatens to undermine public confidence in doctors on a wider scale, which could cause patients to delay seeking care, to disregard medical advice, and to risk eroding their support for vital public health programs.

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Fast Forward To the Problems at UHWI

UHWI, in the country’s capital, Kingston, is where students from other Caribbean countries come to train as doctors and where other local hospitals send patients when they don’t have the technical capacity to care for them.

But at UHWI, patients can wait hours on end to get care. And when care finally arrives, basic medications and supplies are out of stock, leaving doctors little choice but to refer patients off-site.

Some doctors have turned this shortage into opportunity, establishing medical supply companies. One of those companies, as reported by The Gleaner in May 2011 and investigated by the then Office of the Contractor General (OCG), sold to patients, and as I later found from the OCG’s own public contracts database, the hospital, itself. (The OCG oddly found that there was no conflict of interest. It also found that the doctor in question, Peter Johnson— who was then head of radiology at UHWI — didn’t use his position to, directly or indirectly, influence patients’ purchasing behavior.)

The doctors are supposed to declare their conflicts of interest, but a document recently shared with me suggests resistance among doctors in doing so.

The document summarizes concerns stemming from an October 27, 2021 meeting of the UHWI arm of the Association of Government Medical Consultants (AGMC) — the senior doctors. Amid the litany of seemingly serious concerns like organizational structure, chain of command, overdue gratuities, lack of basic equipment and supplies, and having little say in which items are procured, they also seemed resistant to complying with a human resources directive to begin declaring their conflicts of interest — wanting to know, “What the justification is for this requirement.”

They also wanted to know, “What ‘standards’ are they referring to regarding other Medical Institutions demanding this of its employees?”

“Is this a requirement in other public entities?”

Consultants Concerns Stemming From Oct

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It’s discouraging that in an age where issues of good governance and best practices have been widely circulated, this is Jamaica’s senior educated set —our doctors — that feel they need to ask that question.

Is the concern that disclosure could cost doctors business? Even if it did, the senior doctors, especially, are already well compensated. One UHWI consultant recently showed me a pay stub reflecting monthly gross earnings of roughly $1.55 million (US$9,884), above the US$8,405 that the average Jamaican takes home in a year.

And what about disclosing to us patients? Do they not care what we pay?

If doctors are going to be capitalizing on an opportunity to sell medical supplies that the hospital doesn’t supply, the least they can do is to be upfront and say to the patient, “Here are three options where the devices can be purchased. Bear in mind, I own 50% of Company X, so shop around and do what’s best for you.”

What’s Required by the Medical Council of Jamaica

The Medical Council of Jamaica’s (MCJ) own ethics handbook instructs doctors to “always disclose to your patients any interest you may have in pharmacies and other health care or medical establishments to which you may be referring them.”

The handbook also states that when it comes to government contracts, doctors should disclose for any goods or services being offered for purchase their direct or indirect financial interest — including those of immediate family members — and that non-disclosure may amount to “serious professional misconduct.”

Jamaica’s Public Procurement Act, 2015 also requires procuring entities to exclude participants where a conflict of interest is likely to impair the integrity of proceedings and outlines penalties for unlawful influence or deception in procurement processes, including a fine of up to three million dollars, and, or imprisonment for up to three years.

And yet, earlier this month, 18° North reported that local medical supplies company, Medical Technologies (MEDITECH) Limited, despite having a family connection to UHWI’s chief doctor, Carl Bruce, was able to win tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the hospital between 2008 and 2020—the vast majority with only one bid received.

As Medical Chief of Staff in charge of clinical care at the hospital for around ten years, Bruce is an ex-officio member of the UHWI board of management, which sometimes interrogates procurement decisions, though it’s not known if any of MEDITECH’S contracts with UHWI were ever discussed at the board level.

Neither he nor the hospital answered when asked if he had declared this apparent conflict of interest or recused himself from any discussions involving the company. Three industry insiders —including MEDITECH’s former CEO - have hinted or alleged that Bruce, himself, is financially connected to the company, though Bruce has reportedly denied having any ownership in MEDITECH.

How This Can Affect Patient Care?

From the summary notes, the consultants also noted, “We have heard repeatedly that consultants employed to the UHWI are not only operating in direct competition with the hospital but are often accused of even sabotaging the hospital for their own benefit.”

Translated, Opposition Spokesperson on Health Dr. Alfred Dawes told me this could mean —without actually hearing of such allegations — that where UHWI-employed doctors, who also have connections to private companies doing CT scans, for example, may refer patients to that private entity instead of to UHWI, which provides the same CT scan service. Those conflicted doctors, he said, may be motivated to keep UHWI’s machines inoperable for as long as possible rather than report them to be repaired in the shortest possible timeframe.

To claims like this, the UHWI arm of the AGMC in its meeting notes questioned, “Is there any proof of this? If it is hearsay, then those statements are not justified and should be retracted and no further such statements made without offering proof.”

I don’t support making statements that are unproven, but why do we need proof of corruption in order to proactively prevent it? Declaration of conflicts of interest isn’t a punishment. It’s merely a prophylactic.

Already, the public’s confidence in UHWI has been shaken after a damning Auditor General report in January, which found that UHWI had failed to produce procurement documentation for 51 contracts valued at more than $521 million (US$3.3 million) and had misused its tax-exempt status to facilitate imports for several private companies, leading to revenue losses of more than $23 million (US$147,163).

When recently contacted, the UHWI representative of the AGMC since 2019, Dr. Myrton Smith, seemed to understand the importance for doctors to declare their conflicts of interest. “We do not have an issue with that,” he said. He added that the doctors’ main issue from 2021 was the actual wording of the conflict-of-interest declaration form which would “sign away benefits” that had previously been negotiated for doctors who work in the public system to also work privately.

However, that concern about the wording was nowhere in the summary notes. And when Smith was asked for a copy of the document to prove that this was in fact the case, he said it was confidential and referred me to the human resources division of UHWI, which never sent the form despite my request.

Also requested of UHWI’s HR Senior Director, Duane Nelson, and the interim CEO, Eric Hosin, was whether the initiative to declare conflicts of interest was ever implemented. Smith said he doesn’t know of any of the doctors who have been on staff having to sign one but was unaware whether this was a requirement for new hires.

Another UHWI senior doctor, who is affiliated with a medical supplies company, told me he doesn’t declare his interest because his bosses don’t — a telling admission about institutional culture. However, he said the company with which he is affiliated also doesn’t do business with the government, nor does he recommend patients to buy supplies from the company.

In my view, annual declarations of conflicts of interest by all doctors— whether senior or junior, whether at UHWI or elsewhere in the private or public sectors —should be implemented at all institutions and should attract penalties if not disclosed to those institutions and to patients.

There should also be a requirement, as in the United States with the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, that pharmaceutical and medical device companies report payments made to physicians. Such reporting should be made public in a searchable database so that patients and the government’s accountability entities like the police, the Integrity Commission and the Auditor General’s Department, can be more informed about doctors’ conflicts. If companies fail to report these payments to doctors, they should be barred from getting government business.

The Integrity Commission may also need to start proactively looking at companies winning state healthcare business to see if they’re connected to doctors and whether there have been any procurement breaches.

The MCJ should require that a sign be hung in each doctor’s office reminding patients that when a doctor makes a referral, the doctors are to immediately and voluntarily disclose whether they have any conflicts.

Until such a system is up and running and to ensure we’re getting impartial medical advice, patients, too, may have to start asking the uncomfortable question the next time we’re referred: “Doc, do you or any of your family members have any financial connection to that business?”

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Disclaimer: I, through my company, Global Reporters for the Caribbean, the parent company of 18° North, had provided production services to UHWI in or around 2018.

Editor’s Notes:
Dr. Alfred Dawes was also accused of being disingenuous recently by the youth arm of the Jamaica Labour Party, Young Jamaica, after speculation mounted that the company of Opposition MP Dennis Gordon, known as JACDEN, was one of the private companies who benefited from the misuse of UHWI’s tax-exempt status. Dawes, along with his photo, had been listed on JACDEN’s website as a consultant at the time of the Auditor General’s report. However, Dawes has since said he is not affiliated with JACDEN nor has he ever worked for the company, that his image was used without his permission, and that when he found out about it, he asked for his image to be removed. (I couldn’t find the picture when I recently went to the website.) JACDEN, for its part, has maintained its works with UHWI are compliant and didn’t cause or direct any of the cited procurement failings. Opposition Leader Mark Golding said at a Jan. 29 news conference that he had spoken to MP Gordon who maintains that he had done nothing wrong.

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Records Point to Family Link Between UHWI Medical Chief of Staff and MEDITECH, Raising Conflict-of-Interest Questions

A fresh management crisis may be unfolding at Jamaica’s premier publicly-funded hospital, the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), as senior doctors and other clinical staff seek to remove the institution’s chief doctor, Carl Bruce.

The development comes weeks after UHWI’s Chief Executive Officer Fitzgerald Mitchell proceeded on accrued leave amid a police fraud squad investigation into procurement breaches flagged in an Auditor General’s report made public on Jan. 14, 2026.

Now, attention has shifted to clinical leadership following a Jan. 16, 2026 letter of no confidence submitted to the hospital’s board by senior clinicians.

The letter outlined a litany of complaints against Bruce, the hospital’s Medical Chief of Staff (MCS), mostly related to his management style and human resource practices that led to an initial meeting with management in January.

Now, coming out of another meeting on Friday morning involving dozens of consultants and nursing staff, interim CEO Eric Hosin, Board Chairman Patrick Hylton, and University of the West Indies, Mona Principal Densil Williams, 18° North understands that UHWI management has requested two additional weeks to investigate the complaints raised by clinical staff about Bruce.

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The letter of no confidence signed by 13 clinical heads, which is more than half of the full cohort of the hospital’s clinical heads, outlined a series of complaints against the Senior Director of Clinical Services (SDCS), understood to be Bruce. They refer to him as the SDCS because the clinicians contend that the Medical Chief of Staff title is not used in the Jamaican healthcare system—a claim that hasn’t been independently verified by 18° North.

The later stated, “We wish to make it known that we have lost all confidence in the ability of the SDCS/“MCS” to represent the interests of the staff and do not wish him to continue to do so.” It continued, “It is impossible to build the high-performance team required to advance the UHWI without the engagement, empowerment and motivation of the staff.”

Call For Carl Bruce's Resignation 19 01 2026 Doc 22

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Among the allegations are claims that the SDCS made unilateral decisions without consulting clinical leadership, including the reported redirection of approximately $75 million raised through the Sagicor Sigma “Legacy Run” for the hospital’s pediatric unit to other areas of the institution without consultation with the head of pediatrics.

Doctors also contend that the SDCS bears at least some responsibility for operational problems that have contributed to persistent overcrowding in the Accident and Emergency department, which they say stems partly from insufficient bed availability for medical admissions.

Additional complaints outlined in the letter include the cancellation of senior residents’ contracts without consultation with department heads; proposed changes to contracts affecting unionized doctors; refusal to authorize certain payments owed to junior staff; and the removal of equipment while in use, allegedly for treatment of the SDCS’ private patients.

Bruce has been contacted for comment on the allegations in the letter, but he hasn’t yet responded to an email sent on Friday afternoon.

The letter further references three complaints alleging verbal and physical abuse of staff and criticizes what signatories describe as failures by the hospital to properly investigate the matters. 18° North has not independently verified the allegations, and no findings of wrongdoing have been publicly announced.

The letter also notes that two court cases involving allegations of abuse and assault by the SDCS are currently before the courts, and therefore the SDCS “should not remain as the public image” of the hospital while those matters are unresolved. One of those cases stems from a 2007 alleged altercation involving fellow neurosurgeon Roger Hunter.

Two clinical heads who attended Friday’s meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity told 18° North that the alleged longstanding pattern of verbal and physical abuse by Bruce and the “toxic environment” were strongly emphasized during the meeting.

According to the doctors, the board chairman told staff that due process must be followed and requested two additional weeks to investigate the claims of alleged abuse before reconvening with clinicians. Chairman Hylton didn’t answer a call seeking comment. Principal Williams didn’t answer a WhatsApp message. Interim CEO Hosin was contacted this evening via email. Any meaningful response received will be reflected in a subsequent update.

In the meantime, the anonymous clinical heads said clinical staff will boycott meetings convened or chaired by Bruce.

“We will no longer be allowing him to lead us in his current role as Senior Director of Clinical Services,” one of the clinical heads stated.

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Editing help from ChatGPT.

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Records Point to Family Link Between UHWI Medical Chief of Staff and MEDITECH, Raising Conflict-of-Interest Questions

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