The wife of a local psychologist is furious because she claims the hours of non-Bermudian psychologists and psychiatrists will not be policed when they work in the private sector.

Katrina Harlow, a Bermudian, said she is fed up with waiting around for Bermuda Hospital Board's chairman, Jonathan Brewin, to do something about permit-holding psychiatrists and psychologists working in the private sector for extended hours when they were brought to work in a Government position.

The BHB said this week that non-Bermudian psychiatrists and psychologists would be provided on a limited basis.

A press release from the BHB this week said: "To minimize the impact of the agreement on psychiatrists and psychologists operating in private practice, the BHB has agreed that the number of hours in private practice must not exceed eight per week."

"They're not going to be able to police the hours. The amount of hours they're working right now is outrageous and what are they going to do with the 14 or so extra patients that they have a week, they're not just going to suddenly disappear," Mrs. Harlow said.

"We met with Jonathan Brewin on March 21 and it's taken too long for him to finally respond," Mrs. Harlow said.

During that meeting, Mrs. Harlow said that Mr. Brewin had told her he had been advised by Immigration that psychiatrists working privately for an extended amount of hours at St. Brendan's were considered illegal.

"Jonathan Brewin told me it was illegal and there would be an announcement to stop it but it has not been effectively dealt with," she said.

Mrs. Harlow's anger stems from the fact that she believes her husband, who is Bermudian by their marriage, was treated poorly as the Chief of Psychiatry at St. Brendan's before he finally left to start his own practice.

"My husband is Royal College Tudor and Specialist Tudor trained and one of the only Jungian trained psychologists on the Island. He combines three specialities and he came to this Island to do great things," Mrs. Harlow told The Royal Gazette.

"After leaving his position as Chief of Psychiatry at St. Brendan's he has been treated very poorly and our relationship with the doctors at St. Brendan's has been very strained because of this," she added.

In a letter written to Mr. Brewin last month, Mrs. Harlow questioned why her husband's hospital privileges had been taken from him after he left to form his own private business while permit holding doctors have access.

"My husband continues to be disrespected at every opportunity by work permit holding employees at St. Brendan's," she further wrote.

Plus, she said these work permit holders are allowed access to the hospital facilities and resources at the expense of the taxpayer when her husband has been slighted.

"My husband wants me to keep quiet and let him continue with his work, but I'm fighting on choice of principle, in the future it could be your job or you're children's job-that's the point," Mrs. Harlow said.