The Bermuda Public Services Union is calling for Island-wide health care standards after suggesting that certain unnamed people in the medical community are taking advantage of their position to set up businesses in direct competition with the Bermuda Hospitals Board.

As some of those organisations are not accredited, they often receive less insurance coverage than accredited institutions like the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. Giving an example to illustrate, BPSU general secretary Ed Ball, Jr. said people may go to certain labs for bloodwork that could be done at the hospital. Because those labs are not accredited, insurance companies do not cover them to the extent that they cover the hospital, and so those patients find that they have to make up the extra cost out of their own pocketbook.

When that happens with seniors, for example, who are living on a fixed income, he said there have been instances when seniors have gone without medicine to be able to pay the bills.

And he went one step further, saying: “In fact, the Union is becoming very leery of some Bermudians who sit on health care and/or service Boards and are using the confidential information gleaned from these meetings to start businesses that will be in direct competition with the BHB” - businesses which in some instances do not have accreditation.

Yesterday Mr. Ball called on the Health Insurance Association of Bermuda (HIAB) and the Ministry of Health to fix the problem by establishing health care standards through accreditation criteria and, if necessary, conflict of interest laws similar to those in the United Kingdom.

He also called on insurance companies to produce a list of accredited labs or medical practices which receive the same coverage as the hospital, and those which do not, so that patients may know before the tests are done whether they will have to pay extra. He added: “While we are aware that we live in a capitalist, democratic society, conflicts of interest have been frowned upon in the business world, as noted by the Enron fiasco. Nine times out of ten, any shortfalls in the BHB's revenues will have to be borne by Bermuda's taxpayers or through the generosity of exempt companies.

“We only have one hospital and we must do our utmost to improve and maintain international health care standards. We have to question the motives of those special interest groups who want to do anything possible to impede these efforts.”

Mr. Ball would not name names, however. “Has it happened? Yes, it has happened. And persons in authority all know it has happened.”

Last night ZBM News quoted a source as saying a “senior Government official” had approached the BHB several years ago about a partnership to bring a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine to Bermuda. The BHB declined the offer, the ZBM source said, preferring to bring the machine in on their own. The Government official reportedly never raised the issue again.

Mr. Ball also called on members of special interest groups to sign confidentiality or ethics agreements, and said if those agreements were not adhered to, the culprits should be taken to court. “If we have to pursue conflict of interest laws, like in the United Kingdom, then that needs to be done.”

He added he was not worrying about politics or names, but was calling on Government and the HIAB to “just fix the problem”.

“The Union will employ its best efforts to protect jobs, and to wrk with the BHB to ensure that the public receives top-quality health care services.”

The BHB declined to comment on the issue yesterday.