FORMER chairman of the board of management at University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) Wayne Chai Chong has scoffed at claims that the board he headed was “dysfunctional”, which led to it being dissolved by Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton.

In his announcement that the UHWI board had been dissolved, Tufton reported that the resignation of Chai Chong came after a series of discussions on the strategic direction of the hospital and deliberations on the way forward for critical projects which, he said, the chairman noted he was unable to lead.

According to Tufton, the decision to dissolve the board was taken following a meeting with its members to discuss the way forward.

“The meeting also agreed that key strategic actions would need to be taken to realign the institution. Included in these actions are the recruitment and appointment of a new chief executive officer (CEO), and the reinstitution of a new board of management to improve the governance, management, and operational efficiency of the institution.”

Last evening the health ministry announced that Cabinet has approved the appointment of banker Patrick Hylton as the new UHWI board chairman.

Hylton, who will serve a three-year term, has been appointed along with realtor Dwain DeAndre Cox, the ministry said.

But in his first public statement since resigning just over one week ago, Chai Chong said he walked after Tufton decided to overturn a decision of the board to replace the hospital’s acting CEO with another senior director.

According to Chai Chong, among the tasks given to the board by Tufton when it was appointed in November 2022 was “to hire a transformational CEO who could push the board’s agenda, bring accountability to management, and unleash the engagement of the staff members at all levels of the institution”.

He said before the search started the board recognised that the Government’s salary would not be sufficient to attract the quality individual needed, and it sought and received permission to have the private sector top up the salary of the selected person.

“The board unanimously approved contracting a professional recruiting company to conduct a CEO search and selection that would have to stand the scrutiny of any audit. The recruiting professional has worked for many of the largest companies in Jamaica, and for the GOJ [Government of Jamaica], and is accustomed to meet strict recruitment rules that demanded transparency and documentation,” said Chai Chong.

“Over 40 international, regional, and local applications were received. Six compelling candidates met the requirements to be shortlisted for interview. Although the acting CEO for the hospital applied for the position and did not meet the minimum scoring, he was also afforded an interview spot to make a total of seven candidates.

“The hiring process was totally transparent, compliant, fully documented, and professionally conducted for the purposes of the board’s ratification. The HR [human resources] subcommittee of the board unanimously selected an overseas candidate to be the new CEO, and it is at this point that the board started to receive unwarranted pushback and derailing from a number of elements,” Chai Chong said.

“It is this untenable situation that eventually led to my resignation,” added Chai Chong as he pointed out that the pushback led to the selected candidate not taking up the position.

He said at this point the board received advice that it was at risk of having to permanently appoint the acting CEO, “who was not suitable for the role, especially in the context of a need to transform the UHWI”.

He said the board made the decision that, unless certain, it was in the best interest of the hospital to have another senior director assume the role of acting CEO, if even for talent succession development purposes.

“I met with the…minister who disagreed with the board decision and expressed his wish for the acting CEO not to be removed and for the CEO search to be restarted. I awaited his decision to overturn the board’s decision to move forward, after which I respectfully tendered my resignation,” said Chai Chong.

He added that he led a brave board, with members who were willing to tackle the issues which have, for years, been the source of the decline of UHWI and which issues, left unattended, have been causing a fair amount of disenchantment, even among staff members.

Chai Chong said among the discoveries and actions taken by the board were the implementation of the Hospital Information Management System, which had languished in the works since 2017; and an internal audit which discovered a number of irregularities in contract awards and purchasing practices.

He said his board also detected incidents of suspected fraud in the hospital’s payroll department, and arrests were made, while it took steps to increase its billings and collections where in excess of 30 per cent of the potential billing revenue of the hospital was either being written off or not collected.