Mitchell leaves NHF, lauds staff
Published:Friday | December 17, 2021 | 12:06 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
There is uncertainty as to who will succeed businessman and attorney-at-law Howard Mitchell as chairman of the National Health Fund (NHF) after he demitted office yesterday.
In confirming his break with the organisation after a one-year tenure, Mitchell said his personal and professional businesses had suffered, due to his inattention over the period, a situation he would be seeking to remedy.
“Yes, that is correct, I’m leaving tomorrow (yesterday) because last year I gave a commitment for one year. The year is up. I have a lot of obligations, personal obligations, and I can’t ignore them any more. So have to pay attention to them, that’s basically it,” Mitchell told The Gleaner.
The businessman said he had written to Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton at the beginning of his tenure declaring the timeline of the engagement.
BEST HE HAS SEEN
On the question of his successor, Mitchell directed the newspaper to check with Tufton, but indicated that it was his understanding that as deputy chairman of the NHF, Shane Dalling, who is also chief executive officer of the Firearm Licensing Authority, would take his place.
However, when contacted, Dalling expressed surprise, telling this newspaper, “There is nothing I can say on the record.”
Meanwhile, Mitchell said a high point of his tenure had been dealing with the management and staff of the NHF, describing them as of “sterling quality” and the best that he had seen on both the private and public sectors.
“Another high point was managing to ... get Jamaica vaccine because for a while there it was touch and go but by the grace of God we were fortunate and it was teamwork and the help of many people why we have vaccine.”
The low point for Mitchell was dealing with the systemic incompetencies of the public sector in general, characterised by territorialism and the lack of teamwork generally in the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
“Just the difficulty of getting through the bureaucracy, that would be my low,” he explained.