The BVI Health Services Authority last evening disclosed that it owes its suppliers in excess of $2M for a number of goods and services.
Head of the statutory body Darlene Carty Baptiste also reiterated that the agency has been facing financial challenges mainly resulting from some patients’ refusal to pay what they owe.
The amount owed to the Authority – counting from as far back as 1999 – is said to be nearly $28M. It includes $6.1M for off-island placements.
Carty Baptiste said the inability to collect from patients has negatively affected the Authority’s ability to properly compensate its own staff and to pay for things like pharmaceuticals, medical supplies and some contract services.
“The vendors are not as happy with us as they were in the past because we don’t have the ability to pay them on a timely basis. So it’s a trickle-down effect. The staff doesn’t have the equipment; the staff is not being readily compensated for all they do,” she told a community outreach meeting last evening in Sea Cows Bay.
Carty Baptiste also disclosed that the monies owed by the Authority actually threaten the supply of certain goods and services used in the hospital and other public health facilities.She said relations between the Authority and some of its suppliers have also worsened.
“It takes a lot of time to build relationships. The thing is that we actually have to coach and talk our vendors through that something is coming. Our new FC – she has been very diligent in trying to build the rapport and trying to give everybody a little bit so we could start that dialogue and build that relationship over again. So it’s really critical for us to get an infusion to address the arrears.”
Carty Baptiste further stated that the Health Services Authority has stepped up efforts to improve its financial health particularly through the collection of monies it is owed.
A collector who has been employed started work on Monday and a private collection agency is also getting down to work.
Carty Baptiste said the collector will be paid as a full-time member of staff while the private collection agency will be paid five percent of the roughly $28M owed to the Authority. A lawyer has been consulted as the Authority intends – as a last resort – to sue persons who are yet to pay up.
