Chris Tufton’s review committee is probably right that fixes to the legislation under which The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) operates, including streamlining some board positions, will help address the governance crisis, and weak accountability, that has long dogged the institution.

This newspaper therefore urges the government to move quickly on the committee’s recommendations, including its proposal for an external change agent to help the hospital board develop a programme, and schedule, for the implementation and monitoring not its own suggestions, but those contained in the auditor general (AuG) December report of an investigation at UHWI. The AuG highlighted a culture of arbitrariness and disregard for the government’s procurement rules that put at risk taxpayers’ resources.

But a close reading of the review committee’s report, especially in conjunction with the University Hospital Act, reaffirms several critical facts.