Hes Out Of Place! Brantley Blasts PM For Stance On Kidney Screenings Published on Monday, 24 March 2014 13:02 Written by Toni Frederick Hits: 804 St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas (left) and Deputy Premier of Nevis Mark Brantley St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Deputy Premier Mark Brantley has blasted the Prime Minister for encouraging Nevis nurses to volunteer at a health screening that was not sanctioned by the Nevis Ministry of Health. How dare the Prime Minister going to tell staff of the Nevis Island Administration to defy the Nevis Island Administration? He paying any salaries in Nevis? Hes out of place! Brantley said in an interview on WINN FMs Breakfast Show. Speaking on the most recent edition of his Ask the PM programme, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas decried the Nevis Ministry of Health’s decision not to endorse the Caribbean Health Education Foundation’s (CHEF) health screenings being held in St. Kitts and Nevis last week. I want to say to you, the nurses, defy whatever ruling that you have been given by Mark Brantley. Defy it! It is your health! It is your peoples health. If they dont want you to go and assist in this project during your working hours, when you finish working go and lend a helping hand, because the government must not intervene in what is a good...effort to help the people with their health, the Prime Minister said, calling on Nevisians to take advantage of the screenings. To my good friend Mark Brantley. Stop playing politics with the lives of the people of Nevis, Dr. Douglas said. The Opposition Nevis Reformation Party and its supporters have blasted the Nevis Island Administration for refusing to give official sanction to the free, rapid screenings for chronic kidney disease. Calling in on the Ask the PM programme, NRP Party Organizer Carlisle Powell sharply criticized the NIA for its decision. What ethical considerations can they have, when you have doctors here from Washington State University, John Hopkins University, Mount Sinai University, the Kidney Trust, the University of the West Indies and Professor Barton, the Chief Nephrologist is involved? What ethical considerations can they have when the Ministry of Health in the Federal Government has signed off on this? He asked. Also speaking on WINN FM’s Breakfast Show, NRP Deputy Leader and former Minister of Health in Nevis Hensley Daniel had harsh words for Brantley, the current Health Minister. He is too incompetent to be in the chair as the Minister of Health. The Government is robbing the people of the opportunity to know their health status...the people of Nevis are not stupid, they understand that they need to know about their health status, and so they didnt bother with the government. Mr. Daniel said that in two days, over 1000 people had gone to the screenings in Nevis. Mr. Brantley however, was unmoved by the criticism. He said he stood by his Ministry’s decision which was made on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer. All the research done in the Federation...using people, that data must belong to the Ministry of Health and the Government f St. Kitts and Nevis. Only through that ownership of that data, can we decide who gets it, when it is published, what it is used for and the like. According to Brantley, CHEF had insisted that it retain ownership of the data. The Health Minister said there were also standard ethical review protocols that were required, to which organizers, CHEF and the Renal Society had not complied. The Minister said he was not ungrateful for institutions that offer to provide expertise to the people of Nevis, but he would not bend the rules. Im reliably advised that the same advice that was given to Nevis by the CMOs office, was given to St. Kitts as well: that is, this research does not comply with the standards that we have here in St. Kitts and Nevis, or with international standards in relation to ethical review and in relation to data ownership, and as a result ought not to proceed with the formal approval of the government, the Deputy Premier said. I take full responsibility for the decision not to partner with this event in Nevis, and if it were to happen again tomorrow, my response and my approach of this Ministry would be the same. We are guided by the principles and the protocols that are established for anything to do with medicine, medical care, health care in the Federation, and if the Chief Medical Officer says to me that this is in violation of our rules, and he recommends that we cannot go forward, I will be guided by the advice of the CMO. Contacted for a comment on the situation, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Martin said, “The CMO’s advice, like any other technocratic advice, is subject to acceptance or not. That is the norm.” The rapid screenings for chronic kidney disease, were sanctioned by the Ministry of Health on St. Kitts, and were hosted on the island on Thursday and Friday.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 22:10:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015