Opinion: Jamaican Doctors Should Be Scrutinized and Penalized for Not Declaring Conflicts of Interest
SUBSCRIBER CONTENT
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.
