DeSilva: Police raided hospital construction site for drug search
Police have raided the construction site of the new hospital to check up on allegations of illicit drug use, Health Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin has said.A police spokesman last night confirmed officers “recently conducted enquiries at the hospital construction site after alleged illegal drug activity at that location”.However, no arrests or drug seizures were made.Shadow Health Minister Zane DeSilva raised the allegations during the House of Assembly’s motion to adjourn in the early hours of Saturday.The Progressive Labour Party MP said he’d fielded “several calls” that drug use was taking place at the site of the new acute care wing by King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.But a charge by Mr DeSilva that construction staff there had also been presented with demands to change their work contracts was a matter for the Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) to respond to, Ms Gordon-Pamplin said.Mr DeSilva told MPs: “Employees at the hospital are being given ultimatums. This is from the government that talks about jobs, jobs and transparency.”Calling it “outrageous”, he said some staff had been told to take “a redundancy package, or take an almost 20 percent reduction in pay”.Ms Gordon-Pamplin responded that any police action taken at KEMH was a matter for police to respond to, not the Ministry.Adding that ultimatums for employees there hadn’t been brought to her attention, the Minister vowed to check the matter with the BHB over the weekend. There was no response by press time last night from spokesmen for the BHB.