New Interim CEO Named for University Hospital Of The West Indies.
Four Named To Board
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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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