The hospital’s former Chief of Emergency doesn’t want his fierce criticism of past and present healthcare decisions to become a political football
A former Bermuda Hospital’s Board Chief of Emergency physician, Dr. Edward Shultz, has sought to clarify his position when observing the present situation with emergency care and hospital overcrowding.
He calls on the Government and the Opposition to work together on solutions – several of which he has proposed.
Dr. Schultz said, “Going back and blaming politicians that were in power 15 years ago makes no sense.”
He also affirmed that his decision to go public with his concerns about emergency care is due to the Bermuda Hospitals Board failing to act on his recommendations, whereas he found the Government to be very responsive.
Dr. Shultz, who served as Director then Chief of Emergency for 30 years until 2018, then served on the BHB board until late 2024, has gone public this week with fierce criticism of the construction of the new Acute Care Wing at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in Paget. He says it reduced ED bed space by 27% and was designed without surge capacity, or fast track for minor complaints.
However, he said he proposed a number of solutions to the hospital in January that could be swiftly implemented – such as boarding admitted patients on wards rather than in corridors in ED, and converting the large open space areas for holding patients during peak capacity.
Negative comments on media reporting of his letter of concern prompted Dr. Shultz to push back against any politicising of his opinions. He says that the likelihood of such a reaction was why he had preferred to make his case “behind the scenes” up until now.
He said, “True to form, supporters of the political opposition have used this platform to attack the Government on a variety of topics…
“This is not helpful – and only diverts energies – that should be combined in unison by both political parties – to address a healthcare crisis that places the wellbeing of everyone resident on these islands at risk.”
Dr. Shultz also stressed that the “Ministry of Health and Minister [Kim] Wilson in particular – as well as the Bermuda Government in general – have done absolutely everything that I have requested in order to bring a resolution to this crisis.
“Had the Bermuda Hospitals Board acted in equally good faith I would never have gone public with my concerns”.
In our interview with Dr. Shultz (WATCH above), he elaborated on the need to resist making his comments a “political football”.
When questioned if a commission of inquiry, which he has called for, could shine a light on the decisions that led to the construction of the hospital’s Acute Care Wing, he conceded that it could.
However, he added that “trying to blame what happened in the past doesn’t serve any purpose.”
“What we need to do is move forward and fix the situation,” he said.
Adding to these comments today, Dr Shultz said, “we can’t undo the flawed design of the Acute Care Wing, the failure by multiple governments to prepare for the quite predictable impact of our aging population on our ability to provide high quality medical care in Bermuda in the 21st century…
“What we can do – and what we must do as a unified community undeterred by political divisions – is to demand better access to Emergency Care in this country – and hold accountable from this point forward anyone or any organization that might impede us from attaining that goal.”
Dr. Schutz concluded, “Reliving the past achieves nothing except to explain how we got here. What really counts is that we collectively do the right things moving forward.”
WATCH Dr Edward Shultz’ comments on the politicisation of healthcare above.
