Uphill road for new NCRHA boss

Referring to the newness of Health Minister John Rahael (in office for two years), the Board of Directors (just one year old) and his own recent installation, he said this was an opportunity "to bring a new thinking to this organisation and new ways of getting things done."

Speaking at a breakfast meeting in the NCRHA boardroom, Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, Mitchell described the health sector challenge as an old challenge around for many years. He said the Health Sector Reform Programme set out the mandate which the NCRHA had to bring to reality in the face of myriad constraints and obstacles which confronted the organisation daily.

He said systems had to be introduced and implemented which would redound to better patient and customer care and transform the organisation into what they want it to become.

Mitchell appealed for support from all levels of health, saying his focus will be on building alliances within and outside the organisation.

Human resource manager in the Health Ministry, Ashford Sankar, outlined some of the challenges which the new CEO would face, including workers with different performance standards, job descriptions, qualifications in different RHAs. "We have been grappling and trying to come up with a common set of human resource policies to bring some measure of standardisation." He said EWMSC had different categories of workers — those who were with the EWMSC (from its inception), RHA, and public servants. He assured Mitchell of the ministry’s support to achieve stability in the NCRHA.

Health Minister John Rahael thanked Collin Bissessar for acting as CEO for the past nine months, and advised Mitchell that the "buck stopped" with him. He said it was envisioned that the EWMSC become the tertiary health care centre of the Caribbean.

Mitchell was scheduled to meet the NCRHA executive yesterday afternoon to hear about the "burning issues," and decide how they could be addressed. He told the media of his intention to focus on patient/customer service.

"I will be looking very carefully at systems we have in place, and what is causing the hiccups we have in the system right now and what we could do."

Mitchell has an executive masters degree in Business Administration. He is a former accountant at Amoco Trinidad Oil Company, senior administrative assistant at National Commercial Bank, and manager bank premises and procurement, First Citizens Bank.