The Shadow Health Minister last night questioned the future of Bermuda’s health care.

The Bermuda Hospital Board was established under the Bermuda Hospitals Board Act, 1970 and though it has a Government-approved board and a Chief Executive Officer it is supposed to be quasi-autonomous.

However, yesterday Mrs. Jackson, the UBP’s health spokesperson said the recent awarding of a $13.5 million contract to Kurron Shares, a small New York-based firm against the board’s recommendations discredited the quango. “The Board was unanimous in recommending the contract be awarded to Johns Hopkins, which everyone agrees, including the Government, is the gold standard in hospital management,” she said.

“But now that it has been made clear to them that Dr Brown and his Cabinet are going to tell them what to think, I don’t know how much longer the board is going to exist as a meaningful player in future health care decisions.”

The high-turnover rate of five chairmen in the last six months, according to Mrs. Jackson has been the result of Government failing to give the board the autonomy it is provided as a quango.

The most recent example of this lack of independence, said Mrs. Jackson, was when Kurron was named as the firm to help oversee key projects including the rebuilding of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The selection of the firm immediately came under attack from doctors and the Opposition United Bermuda Party, who accused Premier Dr. Ewart Brown of favouring a firm allegedly run by one of his friends.

However, David Hill, the CEO of BHB later insisted the quango had been involved in the decision-making process which led to Kurron’s appointment and fully supported it.

Yesterday, Mrs. Jackson said multiple sources had told her the board had, in fact, unanimously recommended awarding the contract to Johns Hopkins.

She added: “The contract — valued at nearly $13.5 million over five years—- was awarded to a relatively minor and little-known New York firm, Kurron Shares.

“What is really sad about this whole affair is that Dr Brown’s meddling in health care in Bermuda has turned the Hospitals Board, which was set up as a quango, into a kind of joke, an organisation that has had five different chairmen in the last six months.”