The Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) is calling on Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw to withdraw comments that a “medical mafia” could influence access to transplant surgery at the state-run Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).
In a strongly-worded statement issued yesterday, president Dr Lynda Williams said BAMP was “concerned” by the remarks made by Bradshaw during last Tuesday’s debate in the House of Assembly on the Human Tissue Transplant Bill, 2026.
She charged that the comments unfairly tarnished the reputation of Barbados’ medical fraternity and risked undermining public confidence in the health care system.
Disappointed
BAMP said it had listened carefully to the Deputy Prime Minister’s contribution to the debate, but was disappointed that instead of encouraging doctors to uphold the strict ethical standards and safeguards built into the proposed legislation, she chose instead to raise concerns about a potential “medical mafia” creating bottlenecks in determining eligibility for transplant surgery.
Bradshaw had said that patients repeatedly complained of being able to secure surgery more quickly at the QEH if they first consulted a doctor privately.
“I’ve heard it from the time I was a child, so this is nothing of recent vintage. I’ve heard it over and over and I think we are still grappling with this issue that you will be told in a hospital that if you go through the doctor privately, that you are going to be able to fast-track getting your surgery done, rather than having to wait to get it done through the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
“I welcome this legislation, but I pray and I hope for the people who are depending on this legislation to make the change, that we do not find ourselves in a situation where while we experiment to get to the point where we can do many of these surgeries that fall under the classification of transplantation, that we do not create another bottleneck for people who are suffering, whereby almost a medical mafia determines that if you come privately, you may be able to get fast-tracked through the system,” she told parliamentary colleagues.
Williams said Bradshaw’s characterisation bore no resemblance to the realities faced daily by medical professionals working in Barbados’ public health sector.
The BAMP president argued that the longstanding arrangement allowing consultants to divide their time between public service and private practice was created by successive Governments, adding that public sector salaries alone did not adequately compensate highly-trained specialists.
Permitted
According to her, consultants are contracted to provide a minimum number of hours to the public health service while being permitted to supplement their earnings through private practice. However, she maintained that many doctors routinely exceeded their contractual obligations, often working well beyond their required hours in the interest of patient care.
Williams pointed out that surgeons were contractually permitted to perform private procedures at the QEH, a practice that not only benefited patients but also generated additional revenue for the country’s primary health care institution.
She stressed that doctors, nurses and allied health professionals should not be blamed for systemic failures within the health care system.
“BAMP, therefore, seeks to put an end to the misconception that doctors, nurses and other medical staff are responsible for the systemic delays in accessing public surgery,” Williams said.
Countering suggestions that public patients were pushed aside, she disclosed that 92 per cent of all surgeries carried out at the QEH during the past year were public cases. She said that statistic alone should dispel any notion that surgeons were deliberately delaying treatment for financial gain.
Instead, the family doctor argued that the persistent delays experienced by many patients stemmed from long-standing institutional challenges at the hospital rather than any deliberate actions by doctors or other frontline medical staff.
She cited chronic shortages of personnel and medical supplies, ageing infrastructure, environmental concerns, administrative inefficiencies and equipment failures as the primary causes of surgical delays.
Williams said surgeons themselves frequently become frustrated when elective surgery lists are cancelled because of circumstances entirely outside their control.
Those cancellations, she added, often forced patients to wait for new surgical dates, with no guarantee that further disruptions will not occur, prolonging already difficult waits.
The doctor expressed concern about the timing of Bradshaw’s remarks, as Barbados was preparing to launch a national transplant programme that will play a critical role in treating patients suffering from kidney failure.
Warned
“The programme represents an important step in addressing the country’s growing burden of non-communicable diseases, many of which have contributed to rising demand for kidney dialysis. Public confidence in the integrity of transplant services is essential,” the BAMP chief said.
She also warned that any suggestion that transplant eligibility could be manipulated by doctors for personal financial benefit risked discouraging potential donors and recipients, while undermining trust in a programme designed to save lives.
“It is disappointing that a senior politician would choose to sow doubt among those considering kidney transplants and infer that priority might not be given to those who need transplantation the most,” Williams said.
She stressed that the Human Tissue Transplant Bill, 2026,
which was passed in the House, contained numerous safeguards intended to ensure fairness, transparency and ethical decisionmaking throughout the transplant process.
Williams said public officials should be reinforcing confidence in those safeguards and supporting health care workers tasked with implementing the legislation.
She added that BAMP members remained committed to delivering ethical, patient-centred care, and pledged to continue working with health authorities to improve surgical services while defending the professionalism and integrity of the medical community. ( BA)
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