MINISTERIAL STATEMENT BY THE HON. N.B.A. BASCOME Jr. JP, MP MINISTER OF HEALTH
18TH JULY 2008

Mr. Speaker, I am compelled to rise in this Honourable House today to correct a most appalling disregard for the truth which if left unchallenged would rightly cause concern to the hardworking people who administer the Health Insurance Plan or HIP.

Mr. Speaker, in an unparalleled and wanton disregard for the peace of mind of those public officers within the HIP office the people of Bermuda endured a bizarre attack leveled by the President of the Bermuda Public Services Union yesterday. Mr. Speaker, this frenzied commentary, culminating in a “declaration of war” against this Government was an incredibly irresponsible display of leadership by a union official in this country.

Mr. Speaker, the truth of this matter is as follows. The Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Health, the Director of Social Insurance and the Assistant Director within the Insurance section met with the BPSU in February of this year and provided them with an update on the planned automation of HIP. At that meeting it was confirmed that HIP employs eight (8) permanent staff and fifteen (15) temporary employees on six (6) month contracts.

Also at the meeting, Mr. Speaker, the Union was advised of the plan to outsource the processing of claims and confirmed that this did not cause them any concern as it would not impact the permanent staff of the department. That plan has not changed since we discussed it in February and it is a mystery to me and I venture to say to the people of Bermuda why the President of the Union which agreed to this plan would in July use it as reason to “declare war” on the Government.

Mr. Speaker, internally we also discussed the outsourcing plan and advised the staff that this plan related to the automation of the current manual process that prepares claims for clients of HIP and processes payments for all service providers. Mr. Speaker, I might pause and parenthetically add here that Honourable Members will well recall the numerous occasion both within and outside of this Honourable House that the Honourable Member opposite who speaks for Health has complained about this very process.

Mr. Speaker, the new, automated system will require that all permanent staff be retained and further Mr. Speaker, staffing levels will have to be increased to ensure that claims processing remains current. Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, there is not one iota of truth to the contentions of the President of the BPSU that redundancies or any other such staffing reduction will result from the proposed outsourcing plan.

I can advise this Honourable House that the process of determining the company to perform the outsourcing function is at the negotiation stage, two companies having been shortlisted.

Mr. Speaker, the tone of my statement is reflective of the seriousness with which I as the Minister responsible for Health and by extension the working environment of the staff of HIP view my responsibility to them. Mr. Speaker, the comments of the President of the BPSU were irresponsible, not factual and did a grave disservice to his membership.

Unions in this country and generally have a right and a responsibility to properly represent their members. Yesterday’s shocking display of inaccuracy and scare tactics was not proper union representation and in a very shortsighted way threatens the viability of a plan to modernize a system in desperate need of reform and ironically seeks to marginalize the staff upon whom we will rely to carry it out.

Mr. Speaker, having shared the truth with this Honourable House and with the people of Bermuda I look forward to closing this unfortunate episode and to getting on with providing better service to HIP clients and to those healthcare professionals whose livelihoods stand to be improved by our plans.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.