HOSPITAL officials have moved to ease fears among Medical Clinic patients that their private medical records were open to inspection by civil servantsThe Mid-Ocean News yesterday received reports that files on all patients attending the clinic were sent to the Department of Financial Assistance earlier this week.

The action was apparently taken to enable civil servants to ascertain which patients will qualify for financial help with their treatments once the facility — which provides care for the poor, elderly and mentally ill — shuts down later this year.

But yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Bermuda Hospitals Board insisted that the files contained only financial information and did not breach patient confidentiality. She added that the files have since been returned to the hospital.

“Ongoing discussions are being held between the Ministry of Health, the Department of Financial Assistance and Bermuda Hospitals Board to ensure a safe and efficient transfer of care for patients currently using the Medical Clinic,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.

“As part of these discussions, BHB and the Department of Financial Assistance considered options on how to transfer the responsibility for determining financial status.

“While these discussions were under way, files containing financial information on Medical Clinic patients were transferred from BHB to the Department of Financial Assistance, in the event they were needed.

“The discussions concluded that it was unnecessary to utilise these files. They were returned unopened to the hospital and patient confidentiality was preserved.

“The Department of Financial Assistance has created its own system for determining medical assistance and will not have need for patient information from BHB.”

But last night, Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson condemned the action, saying it had created unnecessary concern among patients.

She said she was unconvinced that personal medical records had not been leaked, pointing out that the files were only returned once the news media were alerted to the story and began quizzing officials about the incident.

And she also insisted that the scare highlighted another flaw in Government’s argument for shutting the clinic down — that patients would no longer have their dignity undermined.

“I suspect they realised that they were busted and are now manufacturing a story to cover themselves,” she said.

“How can you believe that these records went over to Financial Assistance and then just sat there for three or four days unsealed? If you believe that you believe in the tooth fairy.

“This is a gross act of Government interference in the private lives of patients. I have never heard of records being farmed out to government staff. They should only be passed on to another doctor or medical facility and even then, only with the patient’s consent. It is ethically and morally wrong.

“But this whole incident also shows the problem with Government’s argument. At the Medical Clinic there was a medical social worker who assessed patients and made a decision about their eligibility.

“Now people will have to go and ask for welfare from the Department of Financial Assistance. Nobody likes doing that — it’s undignified.”

Mrs. Jackson also took aim at a publicly-funded advertising campaign launched by Government today defending its decision to shut down the clinic.

Full-page advertisements — understood to be based on a letter printed in Wednesday’s Royal Gate <$>by Dr. Bert McPhee — have been placed in today’s newspapers. Dr. McPhee wrote that the clinic was founded on “an evil concept” in 1967 “at a time when racism was flourishing in Bermuda”.

Yesterday, Mrs. Jackson said she fully supported Dr. McPhee’s initial opposition to the clinic 40 years ago — but that the situation had since changed.

And she accused Government of hijacking Dr. McPhee’s argument — pointing out that Government’s arguments for closing the clinic underwent continual change.

“I was very pleased to see Dr. McPhee make his stand back in 1967, because back then, the Medical Clinic was not what it should have been — it was not up to standard,” Mrs. Jackson said.

“But we’re now talking about 2007 and over that time the Medical Clinic has been moved, rebuilt, and provides the same standard of physicians as the rest of the hospital. For several years now the hospital has received high credit for providing such a state of the art facility.

“To compare it to the situation in 1967 is comparing two completely different things. It’s like comparing the one-room segregated school rooms to the schools that we have today.

“It’s like saying people shouldn’t go to the Sylvia Richardson rest home in St. George’s now because it was once known as the Poor House. There’s just no relation.

“Why should these people be punished for the past?”