Clinic campaigners to present petition to Premier
Former nurse Diane Williams, who has helped collect signatures opposing the closure of the Medical Clinic during a six-week campaign, said the petition showed that the facility was viewed as an essential service by many.
The Premier announced plans to shut down the Government-funded centre last November, saying that it undermined the dignity of patients.
Instead, patients will have to sign up with one of 13 private practices on the island. They will also have to make a contribution towards costs and be limited to the number of visits they can make.
Critics have said that, under the new scheme, patient care will suffer.
The clinic’s staff have since been told that they will be assigned to new posts this summer, although the Bermuda Hospitals Board has refused to confirm a shutdown date.
Yesterday, Mrs. Williams urged members of the public to take part in Tuesday’s march, which kicks off from the Flagpole on Front Street at 11.45 a.m. Campaigners will then march to the Cabinet Building for their high-noon showdown with the Premier.
“We need all the support we can get,” Mrs. Williams said.“We have more than 3,000 names on the petition now and I think that sends a very clear message to the Premier. Hopefully, he will come out and receive the petition and I’m also hopeful he will take some questions.
“People are absolutely furious about this because it is their mothers and grandmothers, their fathers and grandfathers, who are using the clinic. These people don’t have any money, in some cases they don’t have any transport, some of them are suffering from mental illnesses.
“I just don’t understand why he is closing the clinic down. He says that he has so many doctors who are willing to take on the clinic’s patients, but some of those doctors are under his employ.
“How are the patients going to get to these doctors? And then what if they need an X-ray or something? They’re just going to have to go to the hospital anyway.
“This is a dictatorship. It’s how Hitler started. Dr. Brown is saying that he is the Government and he will do whatever he wants to do, but in fact he works for us — we pay his wages.
“He should be asking us what we, the people, want, but of course he daren’t because he knows what the answer will be. It’s the same reason why he doesn’t want to hold a referendum on Independence. We have a motto - ‘ask, don’t tell’.
“He has referred to us as ‘doom and gloom merchants’ - we’re not doom and gloom merchants, we’re just furious, and he’s insulting members of the public.
“I think the fact that we have so many signatures shows that the clinic is working really well and that people really like it. Everything is there in one building for the patients.
“What he is doing is illogical and shows that he doesn’t really care about the people. We elected him to look after us and he’s only interested in looking after himself.
“I would be willing to challenge him to a debate on television to discuss the closure — and expose him for what he is.”
