The Tribune

THE BAHAMAS must be one of the world’s greatest buck-passers. Everything that goes wrong is never the fault of the one in charge - the finger is always pointing in another direction, where it continues down the line until it stops at an unfortunate wretch caught napping under the coconut tree and failing to do his job.

In Freeport this week, Prime Minister Christie was caught in such an embarrassing situation when he learned of the catastrophe in the Princess Margaret Hospital’s new $100m Critical Care Block. There the operating theatre had to be closed and all operations suspended for want of something as simple as a standby compressor. Apparently, four of the hospital’s six compressors were hit by surges after a power outage and the operating theatre’s air conditioning failed to kick-in when the power was switched on.

For want of a back-up compressor and a surge protector for each unit, the operating theatre had to close and patients in critical condition had to be transferred to Doctors Hospital’s operating theatre.

To make matters worse, although we are in a country located in hurricane alley, now in the critical period when hurricanes form, no one had the foresight to have back-up compressors in storage. A hurried order was put in and Prime Minister Christie announced that they should be here by week’s end. In the meantime, seriously ill patients suffer - yes, for want of a compressor, and whoever failed to have the common sense to make certain that replacements were in stock.

Mr Christie was in Freeport when he learned of the embarrassing medical situation in Nassau.

“Prime ministers don’t ordinarily get to hear about these things” - he was referring to the break-down and lack of back-up equipment. However, he said, “once he hears or reads he must find out. And there is nothing bad about the truth. This is a new facility; why would this $100m enterprise all of a sudden fail?

“I was advised that there were power outages in New Providence and when the power is reconnected the powerful surges knocked out the compressors,” he said. “That’s what the prime minister has been advised. Yes, there were weather implications and we were helpless to going out there to see what you could do. But fundamentally, we own the power station. Therefore, ultimately we have to bear the responsibility for that,” Mr Christie said.

And then he looked around for a scapegoat. Ah! ha! Of course, the Ingraham administration!

He questioned why the Ingraham administration, under which the units were installed, had not provided the necessary equipment and surge protectors to avoid today’s situation. It must be remembered that the new hospital had not been completed under the Ingraham administration. No one knows what might have been installed if the FNM had completed the project. However, the government cannot look back almost five years and blame a previous administration. This is happening on this government’s watch. In almost five years, those in charge of supplies and maintenance of the hospital knew what was needed and should have made a report up the administrative line.

Prime Ministers should not have to worry about such things. This is what he has Cabinet Ministers for and Cabinet ministers have permanent secretaries who should keep the various departments operating.

At one time, we had quite a bit to do with one of the government departments, because of the operation of our equipment. We have forgotten which one we dealt with, but whichever one it was the department’s top man was excellent. Whenever there was a problem, we called him, only to discover that he had to go through a descending order of sub-managers, before he could get to the man to do the job. This always slowed down the operation. It was then that we realised that the affliction of most of these government departments was overstaffing. A good pruning was needed to raise the standard of efficiency. There were too many managers, and too many opportunities for buck passing.

We do not know whose fault it is that no one had the intelligence to know that being an island, backup equipment is needed when it comes to machinery. Whoever was in charge of this section at the change of government is the one — if he had any managerial abilities — who would have known and would have been responsible for alerting his superiors that back- up equipment was essential. Possibly he did his job. Possibly his advice was ignored.

But a prudent Cabinet minister in a new government should have called in all heads of his Ministry and acquainted himself with the functions and requirements of the various departments of his ministry. It should then be up to his Permanent Secretary to meet regularly with heads of departments to keep his minister informed.

And so it is important that each employee in these ministries appreciates that his is an important job, no matter how seemingly insignificant he believes it to be. If he fails to function, he can bring the whole structure down.

And so after almost five years in government the Christie administration cannot use the Ingraham administration as a crutch on which to lean for its failings. This government must carry the blame for the break downs in the new hospital block, including turning what the Ingraham government had intended to be patients rooms into fancy offices for themselves.

And so it is important for heads of departments and Ministries — from the Prime Minister down the administrative ladder — to understand that the small acts of omission or commission by any member of the team can have major consequences.

In the words of Benjamin Franklin:

“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,

For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,

For the want of a horse the rider was lost,

For the want of a rider the message was lost,

For want of a message the battle was lost

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,

And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.”

And here in The Bahamas, surgeries in the Princess Margaret Hospital’s Critical care unit had to be suspended for want of standby compressors and the failure to attach surge protectors to each compressor then in operation.