A natural medicine practitioner who is apparently the subject of an investigation by the Bahamas Medical Council has lashed out at the regulatory body and is calling on the chief medical officer to dismantle and restructure the Council.
Dr. Kevin King has asked that the Medical Council “account to the Bahamian people for the inept and apparent failure to guard the health of our nation.”
Dr. King, who practices natural medicine and is not a medical doctor, also called on the prime minister to form an independent commission of civilians to “oversee the functions of The Bahamas Medical Council and to question every hospital death, both private and public in our Bahamas.”
He claimed that the Council, headed by Dr. Baldwin Carey, is only a social club of University of the West Indies graduates.
The Council comprises the chief medical officer, a physician from the Grand Bahama community, and two selected by the Bahamas Medical Association, which is a grouping of physicians practicing in The Bahamas.
The Council is entrusted with licensing and verification of medical qualifications.
Dr. King’s statement comes several weeks after The Bahama Journal ran an exclusive story that said the Bahamas Medical Association had sounded the alarm over pseudo physicians who are reportedly posing a serious threat to public health.
The Medical Association went as far as running an advertisement saying that it is “concerned that there are a number of persons practicing medicine [who] are not registered or licensed medical doctors.”
In the earlier Journal story, Dr. Harold Munnings, a member of the Association, had raised specific concerns regarding Dr. King, who operates a natural medicine practice in New Providence.
“It’s a big concern,” said Dr. Munnings, referring to what the Association said are unlicensed doctors operating in The Bahamas.
Dr. Carey at the time indicated that he was aware of the concerns the Association has about Dr. King, but he had declined to go further. He could not be reached on Wednesday after Dr. King’s statement was issued to the press.
“I am always asked, ‘Are you a medical doctor?’,” Dr. King said.
He added, “What is a medical doctor? And who really cares anyway when they are ill and suffering. People want to feel better. They want to be healthy even if it means to drink seawater. If it works that’s all they care about.”
“I don’t have to answer to any accusations by the Bahamas Medical Council. They need to address their many failures in caring for our people, and address the protection they give to their colleagues who commit atrocities against the Bahamian public in the name of medical doctor.”
He claimed that medical doctors have a legal license to kill and not account to anyone.
“They can record anything as a cause of death. Who can question them?” Dr. King asked.
He said that the Medical Council must account for why “the health of our nation is being threatened; how many wrong surgical procedures are done every day; how many people die because of prescribed medications; how many people suffer as a result of surgical procedures and how many people die from surgery related procedures?”
Dr. King claimed, “The problem is there is no accountability to anyone for The Bahamas Medical Council. No one challenges them. They are the only organization in The Bahamas that has complete autonomy.”
He said he is the only qualified natural medicine practitioner in The Bahamas, but said more are on the way.
It’s precisely why some members of the Bahamas Medical Association are concerned. They say Dr. King is taking seriously ill patients off their medications and they are becoming even sicker.
But Dr. King has touted the success of his practice and his reported efforts to help seriously ill patients find healing.
“This is my profession. I can practice anywhere in the world. I chose to come home,” he told The Bahama Journal.
“They need not just look at me; just look at the world. Right next door in America there are more persons going to see doctors of natural medicine every day than they are going to see conventional physicians. They must know that. So the notion that Dr. King should not be practicing in The Bahamas is a thing of the past.”
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
