GPHC Chairman ‘outraged’ at conduct of parliament group head
CHAIRMAN of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) Board, Kesaundra Alves yesterday expressed outrage at what she said was the deception demonstrated by some members of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Social Services during Wednesday’s
visit to the institution. An attempt by the Chairman of the parliamentary committee, MP, Dr Vindhya Persaud to inspect the hospital’s bond was halted by Alves and GPHC Administra-tor Allan Johnson.
A statement from the Ministry of Public Health yesterday said that the Clerk of the Parliamentary Committee wrote to the GPHC seeking permission to “observe the conditions/facilities under which patients are cared for and interact with members of the public and staff at this facility’.
The statement said that at the pre-visit briefing, Alves told the Committee and the media that the places selected to be visited were the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department, the Surgical Outpatients Department (SOPD), the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) and the Paediatric Department (Baby Heart).
The statement said that once the tour began, Dr Persaud indicated that she would like to add three other places to the tour. These were the main Pharmacy, the main Laboratory and the Maternity Unit. This was agreed, the statement said.
“When the touring party left ‘Baby Heart’ and proceeded to the laboratory, Dr. Persaud `broke away from the rest of the group and bolted up the stairs of the pharmacy bond with the media at her heels’”, Alves said.
Suspecting “some mischief was afoot”, Alves, the statement said, demanded that Dr. Persaud and the media return to the agreed tour schedule which was at this point beyond 2 ½ hours long.
These requests were ignored, the statement said and Dr. Persaud and the media went into the Bond unimpeded. Other Committee members remained behind and lamented her high-handed approach, the statement added.
“It was distasteful and unethical. Clearly there was some hidden agenda”, Alves was quoted as saying.