Hospital campaigners have met with the Canadian firm undertaking a clinical and corporate review of the Bermuda Hospitals Board.It was announced earlier this week that Howard Associates had been appointed to conduct the investigation by the end of the year.A final report will be ready by the end of January 2013 and the Bermuda Healthcare Advocacy Group said their first meeting with the consultants had been “well received”.They issued a press release in advance of the meeting, explaining the points representatives hoped to discuss with Howard Associates.It said: “Since the inception of the Bermuda Healthcare Advocacy Group in February 2012, there have been numerous complaints from across the country regarding dissatisfaction with the healthcare provided at KEMH. The sources have been from a broad cross section of the community. We have had concerns expressed by qualified medical professionals, hospital staff, numerous ailing patients and prior employees.“Along with patient care and lack of professionalism, there is one thing that is common among the complaints — major concerns regarding a lack of transparency and a retributive management culture. In other words there is no room for free expression without reprisals. If you say something they will penalise you. It is well known that such management operations can lead to poor patient outcomes in any setting.”The group then listed a number of specific concerns regarding “clinical competence”, “compassionate care” and “corporate credibility”. They inquired how BHB measures its morbidity and mortality rates, how it hires and trains hospitalists, and what measures are being taken to reduce the waiting times in the Emergency Room.It also sent inquiries about staff pay and bonuses, and inquired why former Chief of Staff Donald Thomas was suspended from his post and then resigned earlier this year.The group issued a follow-up statement after the meeting, saying: “Our initial meeting with Howard Associates was well received. We gave them a brief history of who our group was and what we were trying to achieve. We got a brief description of what the company’s goals of the review would be and a brief background of those involved. They indicated that the review would last until approximately January or February.”They added: “Our group tried to touch on a few of the areas that the group and the community had such as ensuring that the hospitalists were qualified by the same worldwide examination, as many of them came from different countries, [and the] cleaning and disinfecting of the hospital.“We also mentioned having adequate staff to feed the patients. There is a concern amongst the community that the new hospital will be used mainly to attract medical tourism to the island and not for the general Bermuda population. Unfortunately, our time was limited in fully discussing our issues as they had another meeting to attend.”The statement concluded: “We advised them that our group has created a complaint form that we will make available to the public so that everyone on the island that had a concern could complete one of these forms. We will submit a copy to the hospital on their behalf and retain a copy for our files.”Another meeting is scheduled for next week.BHAG said: “We look forward to keeping an open dialogue with Howard Associates.”