Region Five REO owes Nurse Marks an apology

Dear Editor, I write in response to a letter in the Kaieteur News (Friday, 21 April) in which the Regional Executive Officer of Region 5, Mr Ovid Morrison, questions my qualifications to determine “the right to so confidently declare how much medication a patient should or should not get?” This is, of course, in response to a previous letter in the same medium in which I exposed a high profile APNU+AFC Councillor in Region 5 being given more medication than is required. By now, the entire nation knows that that APNU+AFC Councillor is the controversial Carol Joseph.

I will not question Morrison’s qualifications to determine which community in Region 5 is more deserving of having infrastructural development work done, as opposed to others that have been neglected. Neither will I question his motive to funnel government’s resources to develop communities of a certain ethnicity over another.

I will not justify my training as a New York State certified Emergency Medical Technician - Defibrillation, that enables me to identify symptoms associated with drug abuse.

I will also not dwell on his ignorance of judging Sherilyn Marks’ qualifications and ability to do the same, given that he knows absolutely nothing about this heroine’s background as a highly trained Staff Nurse/Mid-Wife, and that her entire family is made up of doctors and nurses, including her sister who is a doctor; her father who was a staff nurse and now a pharmacist; and her mother who has given 33 years of service to this country in the nursing profession as a registered nurse/midwife, all of whom nurse Marks consults with on a regular basis. But I don’t expect Morrison to know that. He owes this lady an apology.

The Region 5 CEO is obviously trying to protect a PNC/APNU comrade. PNC paramountcy is indeed alive and well in Region 5.

But even if neither nurse Marks nor myself was “qualified” to determine what amount of drugs constitutes an abuse, let me assure the REO, that it is highly unusual for anyone to be taking injections of the drug in question almost every day since last September, and occasionally twice a day.

Editor, contrary to what is being reported, Staff Nurse Sherilyn Marks did not write any letter to the press, I did. Neither did she disclose any confidential patient information to me. I got that from a confidential source that will remain anonymous. I merely contacted nurse Marks to confirm that her letter, sent to me by a colleague, was in fact written by her.

I am pleased that Carol Joseph was finally forced to resign as a Region 5 RDC Councillor, as she was not only an embarrassment to the region and government, but also a liability to the PNC/APNU.

I will be monitoring the progress of Staff Nurse Sherilyn Marks very closely to see whether there are attempts to force her out of the region. Yours faithfully, Harry Gill, PPP/C MP