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