Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

The Southern Regional Health Authority (SERHA) has been operating without an approved management board, The Sunday Gleaner understands.

SERHA has been operating without a board since March when a new Cabinet was named by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

SERHA governs the Kingston Public Hospital, the Bustamante Hospital for Children, Victoria Jubilee and the Princess Margaret Hospital in Morant Bay, St. Thomas. Checks revealed that some of the hospitals had no management board. The Bustmante Hospital for Children did not have a board, neither did the University Hospital of the West Indies, which has only named a chairman.

The role of the board is to manage and implement policies passed down by the Ministry of Health; manage the region's and hospitals' finances; implement quality control; monitor training and enforce accountability.

Operating a hospital without a management board could therefore have serious implications for any hospital or health agency, a senior medical source told The Sunday Gleaner.

Some only recently approved

Boards in other regions have also been absent, most being approved only recently. Both the North Eastern Regional Health Authority and Western Regional Health Authority boards were approved about two weeks ago, hospital officials reported. The board of the Southern Regional Health Authority has also been approved, but it is not clear how long the board has been in operation.

Regional health authorities and hospitals have not been the only organisations under the Ministry of Health without boards. The boards of some executive agencies are yet to be named, while the boards of at least one crucial agency was named only four days ago.

The National Council on Drug Abuse has been operating without a board since Horace Dalley replaced John Junor as Minister of Health, while the National Health Fund (NHF) board of directors was only approved two days ago.

The NHF manages billions of dollars from a tobacco cess and several more millions from the Consolidated Fund to pass on as benefits to registered beneficiaries under the fund, as well as to provide assistance to social projects.

Efforts to reach Minister Dalley to have him explain why it has been taking so long to approve the boards were unsuccessful up to press time.