Hamilton, Bermuda:--- Just weeks ago, in late March, after more than five years, countless court battles at the vast expense to both the Bermudian taxpayer and me, untold worry and consternation of patients, the Bermuda Police Service has finally notified me that " ...the investigation into medical fraud has now discontinued ..." with no charges having been preferred in relation thereto.
In February 2017, the BPS obtained a warrant to search and seize patient files from our clinics. Patients were horrified, offended, scared, and dismayed those police officers were allowed to seize and rummage through their private medical files because the BPS wanted to find some dirt on me to prosecute. That was an affront to the right to confidentiality between doctor and patient and has seriously damaged the trust that patients can place in a system that fails to consult them in any way.
To try to protect patient confidentiality, our patients and we mounted a fierce, expensive, and public court battle to force the BPS to return the original files and ultimately limit the number of files that could be copied and sent to expert doctors to review, all under specific orders of the court. A protocol was developed under court supervision which gave detailed directions as to how the review of patient files should take place and how the sensitive patient files should be managed and held.
We never received the results of that review, no doubt, because it completely exonerated the clinics and me. However, what is patently clear is that the BPS has now abandoned this ludicrous investigation into medical fraud because there is no case, there was no case, and there has never been a case. It follows that successive governors and the BPS have utterly failed in this endeavor, save for incurring huge costs and much disquiet to innocent patients.
We have been arrogantly told - without any verification - that the copied files which the BPS kept have been "incinerated". How dare the BPS? How dare they? They were under a Court order to review sensitive patient files under specified protocols. And, without notice to the patients, the clinics, our lawyers, or the Courts who gave them access, they "SAY" they incinerated them. Are we to accept that the BPS had no duty under law, under Court order, under simple humanity and morality to notify anyone - particularly patients - that their sensitive files were no longer necessary? Are we to accept that the BPS had no duty to make the court, our attorneys, patients, and clinics aware that since copies of the files were no longer needed, perhaps under common decency, our patients and we might have had an opportunity to collect them ourselves and verify that all were returned?
Meanwhile, they plough with further spurious allegations against me dating back at least 21 years. I have been under investigation for more than 11 years at the cost of over $10 million to the Bermudian taxpayer. Go figure! AND they are still proceeding in the courts with no end in sight for the Bermudian taxpayer or me. Is this prosecution or persecution?
