Archive for November, 2010

Proposed prison cuts flawed

(CNS): Although the civil service review team said it had identified some $4 million worth of cuts in the prison service, the management has indicated that this is optimistic. Many of the 15 recommendations made by the team will not necessarily realize the savings suggested and may be impossible to implement or dangerous, the prison has warned. From closing down Fairbanks and housing the women at Northward and enforced lock downs to sending home murderers on electronic tags, the prison management has pointed out numerous flaws with the recommendations. The prison said costs are fixed and the team’s methods for calculating cuts have failed to take this into account as well as raised some serious security issues.

According to the review team’s report, its recommendations are at odds with the prison management, which has questioned the calculations for savings as well as the ability of the country to reduce the prison population by as much as 40%.

“A lot of emphasis is made on the reduction of the number of prisoners being held in custody making a drastic reduction to the budget,” the prison management said in reaction to the review team’s recommendations. “It is unrealistic to state that one prisoner less will result in a reduction of, say, $50,000 to the prison budget.” The management explained that by multiplying this out per number of prisoners reduced doesn’t work as the majority of the prison budget is fixed costs. “The only variable costs which could be attributed directly to a prisoner are food, clothing and earnings, and much of the other costs would remain the same.”

The Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs, under which the prison service falls, also indicated that the maths was wrong. “Management is unsure as to the components used to calculate the reduction in costs based on the number of prisoners by the review team,” it stated. An analysis of the costs indicates that directly variable costs are actually $5,931 per annum for each prisoner.” Management explained that while the per head cost is calculated at over $50,000 reducing 5 prisoners does not result in a saving of $250,000 but $25,000.

While the review team pointed to a collection of radical ways of reducing the prison population and a capital gain through the sale of land at HMP Fairbanks, with a few notable exceptions, the prison management indicated most of the recommendations were seriously flawed.

The prison pointed out that the goal of realizing $100,000 from Fairbanks was unlikely. “It is our understanding that the land actually belongs to the Health Service Authority and not the prison, so we would be unable to sell this land,” the prison managers said. They also stated that there is no accommodation available at Northward that could house the female population, which would mean the prison would incur the cost of building a new female jail “A facility would have to be built and housed in its own compound for security reasons.”

The review team recommended that inmates rated in the lowest risk category could be accommodated at home in “house-arrest‟ schemes and electronic monitoring arrangements. In response the prison pointed out that the many legal issues, not least the fact that a third of the Category D prisoners are actually in prison for life sentences, including the crime of murder.

The prison revealed it was already exploring the possibility of sending high security prisoners to overseas facilities, a recommendation made by the team that it estimated would save around a $¼ million. However, the prison indicated that it had encountered human rights concerns as well as the actual costs being potentially higher than keeping inmates at Northward.

Prison management also warned of the dangers of reducing staff, which was already below minimum for a facility which could be characterized as a low risk prison holding high risk prisoners. The management pointed out some of the problems the service faced with its inadequate staffing levels.

“At present the department does not even have a dedicated staffing team for its CCTV, or sufficient staff to even maintain outside patrol. The inability to respond to incidents or any other emergency due to the lack of staff is to jeopardize the security of the establishment, society and to place staff and prisoners at great risk,” management warned, asking the review team to reconsider reducing staff, especially given the changing profile of inmates and the growing number of violent offenders.

“The department is now faced with having to modify and create another High Risk Unit, which will have staffing implication. The demographics of prisoners entering the establishment is changing with more prisoners entering prison for more violent offences and is linked to different gangs, hence the need to establish different regimes and separation of prisoners. This is also impacting our staffing level. I must therefore call for serious reconsideration of this recommendation,” the prison director indicated.

The controversial suggestion of periodic lockdown days, which the review team said could help relieve the current staffing demands on the prison service and afford a break to some over-stretched officers, was also dismissed by the prison as actually having the potential to have the reverse effect.

“It is totally impractical to effect such a move,” the prison management stated, pointing out the need to still unlock, feed and exercise prisoners as required by law and take them to appointments such as court or medical visits. “Unless there is an incident, [lockdown] is counter-productive, resulting in sabotage, resistance and would require more staff to put out fire fights. Any such recommendation would be totally unproductive and would require a vast amount of staff to run the operation,” the prison added.

The recommendations in the report, most of which the prison warned would not result in savings, would not necessarily be practical to implement and possible present dangerous security risks, were also made against a backdrop of various problems. From insufficient staff levels, officers on grades below their official job, occupancy significantly above intended capacity, the poor state of repair of the prison and an apparent increase in the rate and severity of local crime, the prison is battling to keep the prison safe.

The prison service has an annual budget of almost $14 million which is 4% of government’s operational expenditure, had has a staff of 146 people.

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Laws crucial to new hospital

(CNS): The creation of new legislation and law reform are essential to the development of Dr Devi Shetty’s proposed health city, his local team has confirmed. The Cayman government must change the Health Practitioner’s Law and legislate for tort reform as well as introduce a new law to facility organ and tissue donation before the project goes ahead. The acclaimed surgeon told an audience from the Chamber of Commerce that he was intent on changing the rules when it came to the delivery of health care for all and that he was convinced the Cayman Islands was the best location for his first project outside of India.

With his eye on the more than $2.2 trillion industry in the United States, Dr Shetty said he believed American patients would come to this jurisdiction. He said Cayman was the right location for the project for a number of reasons, including the government’s willingness to change the laws to accept medical qualifications from India — a country which produces the most doctors in the world, with the most experience.

Dr Shetty pointed out that one of the reasons why health care was so expensive was because of the artificial shortage of trained manpower. He blamed medical councils for deliberately maintaining that shortage in order to keep the price of senior medical personnel services high.

He said the main reason why his new health city would be able to succeed in the Cayman Islands is because it was willing to accept Indian doctors and their qualifications. He said his model would attract patients from the US because it would provide health care at 50-60% of the cost there in a place that Americans would feel comfortable.

Shetty explained that Cayman is an attractive destination for quality medical staff, not just from India but from the US, where the heads of departments at his hospital would come from. As a result of the government’s willingness to change the necessary legislation, together with no infectious diseases, a stable government and a respected banking system, Cayman provided an attractive option.

Dr Shetty said that Cayman, which already had the infrastructure related to existing tourism, could more easily become a significant medical tourist destination. With its proximity to the States and the fact that the destination was considered safe, patients would feel comfortable coming here to be treated and the necessary medical experts would also want to live here, offering a winning combination.

Cayman would benefit extensively, the doctor said. Not only would the country get access to affordable high quality health care, unlimited employment opportunities, but medical tourists also spend a lot of money.

“We are confident Cayman will be a success because America will move to a social form of medicine where waiting lists will be introduced,” Shetty said. “Waiting lists will drive medical tourism because patients, especially elderly ones, don’t want to wait.” He pointed to the aging population in Florida that would increasingly need access to affordable and immediate health care, as well as assisted living.

Answering criticisms that his model had been referred to as a production line, where quantity was placed over quality, Dr Shetty said that it was about volume in India, which is what made health care there affordable. But any hospital doing the largest number of operations has the best results. “If you keep doing it you become technicians and get good at it,” he said. The surgeon explained that his hospital in Bangalore, India, was compared with nine New York state facilities and it had better outcomes.

“Everything we are doing is about affordable health care” he said, adding that he wanted the idea of accessing medicine to be disassociated from affluence.

Acknowledging that the concessions he was asking for were about significant change, he said someone had to start to say that the way things are currently done in the world when it comes to access to health care were unacceptable. “Our goal is to make it affordable,” Shetty said.

Gene Thompson from Shetty’s local team told the Chamber audience that he hoped to break ground sometime in the second quarter of 2011. He would not reveal which locations were being considered but said the start of the project was heavily dependent on the legislative changes.

“We can’t move forward until the regulatory issues are resolved,” Thompson said. “We are committed to moving forward and are pushing the process. Things are moving forward, not as fast as we would like, but things are moving.” Thompson said.

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Kurt resigns PPM’s top job

(CNS): Full story — The opposition leader and head of the People’s Progressive Movement has announced his intention to resign from both roles early next year. Kurt Tibbetts revealed that he will be stepping down from the top job in his party and on the opposition front bench once a new leader is elected at the party’s conference next year. Tibbetts will not be leaving the political scene and will be continuing on as an MLA and member of the party but he is moving aside, leaving the top spot open for one of his political colleagues. Any of the four PPM serving MLAs may run for the leadership but the two candidates likely to be vying for the job will be Alden McLaughlin and Arden McLean.

The former leader of government business made the announcement at a televised press briefing on Wednesday afternoon at the PPM’s headquarters but would not be drawn on who he believed should be the party’s next leader. The veteran politician stated diplomatically that any one of his four colleagues was up to the job.

Tibbetts, who has served in the Legislative Assembly since 1992, said that once the new leader, along with a deputy leader and a party general secretary, was elected he would be there to offer support but would allow what he called the new blood of the party to take the PPM forward and would not impose on them. “I have always been a firm believer in succession planning and now the PPM needs new blood at the top, new people to lead the movement and carry out its mission. From time to time every organization needs a change of leadership to foster growth and allow for continuity and the PPM is no exception,” he said.

Tibbetts revealed that in the wake of the election defeat of the PPM in May 2009 he had told his party colleagues he would not be leading the PPM into the 2013 elections. However, he said that was not the time for him to step down in the immediate aftermath of the election. He explained that in order to follow the party’s constitutional process and give the party enough time to develop its new leadership it was now time for him to step aside and let that process begin.

“The PPM’s constitution calls for the election of a new leader to be done at a conference in which all PPM members participate in the election process,” he said. “Not less than 60 days notice must be given to the membership for this conference to take place. The PPM executive has decided that a conference of the party will be convened for this specific purpose and will be held early next year.”

He explained that he would remain as political leader of the PPM and of the opposition until the new leadership is elected.

“There will be no time when the party does not have a functioning Leader. Only when a new leader has been elected will I step down. Once a new leader has been elected, I will cease to be the political leader of the PPM, and I will also cease to be leader of the opposition," Tibbetts emphasised.

Even after the new leader is chosen he said he would still continue to be a member of the parliamentary group of the PPM and an elected member of the Legislative Assembly, and to serve his constituency and the country as the first elected member of George Town.

“I will continue to be an active member of the PPM and sit on its councils. Most importantly, I will continue to play my part in helping the PPM to achieve its mission. This is as important to me today as it has ever been. Nothing will change, except that someone else will shoulder the leadership responsibilities. My love for my country and my people, and especially my love for the people of George Town, remains steadfast. No one need question that.” Tibbetts stated.

The notice period will give the membership time to think about the new leadership, Tibbetts noted, and for the district councils of the PPM to convene, discuss the matters and decide on their nominee. At the party conference, in addition to the new party leader, a deputy leader and a general secretary will also be elected. The posts of political leader and deputy will have to be filled by elected members of the Legislative Assembly but the general secretary may be held by any PPM member.

Six months after the new leadership team is elected, there will be another conference where other officers of the organization will be elected or re-elected and decisions made on the way forward for the next general elections, which Tibbetts said the PPM would win.

Looking back over his leadership of the PPM, he said that when the party was in office it had given the country the right kind of government, as it had promised. “We also pressed for improvements in our Constitution and laws, many of them designed to reduce the risk of bad government. We succeeded despite the opposition of the UDP and its leader. Thanks to our efforts there is now greater transparency, greater protection through legislation like the Freedom of Information Law and, because of the new constitution, in the last resort voters have the power to demand a referendum.”

He said the party now needed to devote more time and effort to the public image of the PPM. “There have always been people who are against the party system – mostly I think because of how the party system is perceived in other countries – also because some think it is the cause of the confrontation between elected representatives, and they would like to see cooperation instead,” he said

However, he pointed out that the confrontation between MLAs comes from the constitution, and the division of government and opposition. “We need to convince enough people that, without parties, voters have no idea what sort of government, or which leader, they are voting for. I think the election in 2009 taught quite a lot of voters what we were trying to get across,” he added, saying the party must still listen to the voters learn lessons.

“In 2009 voters said they wanted a change in government. I do not think they were necessarily looking to appoint Mr Bush as the country’s leader, nor do I think they were giving a thumbs-down to me personally or my Cabinet colleagues – all but one of whom were re-elected. Many used their votes to say they would like to see some new faces in the LA,” Tibbetts observed.

The PPM outgoing leader said people were taken in by the UDP line thatthe previous administration had caused the country’s economic problems.

“With leadership comes accountability so I take full responsibility,” he said. “There is much work for us to do. Once the new leadership team is elected, they will then have ample time to develop the new road map which will take us to victory in the next elections. “

He said it was time for everyone who wanted to give the country good government, not just those who are already members or supporters of the PPM but also those who regard themselves as independents, to join forces. “We have always been an inclusive movement, and now is the time for good people to join forces for the right reasons,” Tibbetts said.

The PPM will be holding an open national meeting at the Sea Farers Hall on Thursday at 7:30pm
 

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