Owner of bogus nursing school held by police

Jan 28, 2009 News

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– Scores of students offer statements to police

An investigation into the operations of the Inter-American Nursing School was kicked into motion yesterday when more than 100 young persons who have enrolled for various medical courses at the institution were forced to solicit the assistance of the police.
According to reports reaching this newspaper, following Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy’s disclosure that the school may be engaged in fraudulent activities, several of the students sought to get an explanation from the female owner of the entity whose name is given as Nanda Kissoon, in the hope of retrieving monies they had paid for courses.
They claimed that the woman offered a variety of courses, all of which she taught herself at a location in Cummings Street.
This newspaper had incorrectly reported, based on information from Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, that the ‘so-called’ nursing school was located at the corner of North Road and Alexander Street.
According to the students, when questioned, after the Kaieteur News article was published, they sought answers from Kissoon but she dismissed the Minister’s allegations as “mere rumours”.
However, information began to reach them that the woman had been involved in a previous scam in the medical field.

As such their curiosity got the better of them and several of them formed a delegation yesterday and visited the Minister’s office where they were given details of the vast irregularities which exist at the institution.
The students said that the Minister also upbraided them for even enrolling in the school and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars without garnering certain information from the relevant persons.
Later in the day the riled up group of students then paid a visit to the woman’s Duncan Street residence where they attempted to seek an audience with her.
Some of the students related to this newspaper that they asked persons believed to be relatives of the woman of her whereabouts but were told that no one by that name resided at the location.
It was during this conversation, the students said, that the woman drove up in a car. The police was summoned at this point and showed up just in time to apprehend the woman from the confines of her home. She was subsequently taken to the Alberttown Police Station where she was reportedly interrogated by officers.
On learning of the development, other students of the school hurried down to the police station in their numbers to give their account of the operations of the school.
Several of the students said that they had paid in excess of one hundred thousand dollars and claimed that they simply were hoping to ‘get a break’ in the medical field.
According to the students, it is their hope that the police will deal condignly with the matter to prevent anyone else from being deceived by the woman.
The students, after giving individual statements at the station, were advised that they should visit the Fraud Department of the Brickdam Police Station around 09:00 hours today to give further statements.
Minister Ramsammy in an invited comment last evening said that he is satisfied that the matter is now in the hands of the police where it belongs.
He disclosed that the woman who has been known to use about five aliases was first discovered to be a scam-artist some years ago.
He said he was forced to close the Instant Laboratory which was operated by the woman in the year 2001 when he re-assumed the post of Health Minister.
According to the Minister, the woman had represented herself as one Dr Nikita Basdeo, adding that it was eventually discovered that the woman is not even qualified as a doctor. After the scam with the laboratory was uncovered, the woman disappeared.
About two years later the Minister said that the woman returned using the name Donna Gomes and represented herself as a Bio Chemical Engineer.
Minister Ramsammy said that the woman was successful in persuading a number of medical entities to retain her services to maintain laboratory equipment.
So convincing was she that she even managed to get a number of the entities to sign contracts with her, allowing her to misrepresent herself for a period of time.
After her scam was detected by the Health Ministry and the police was called in, the Minister said that the woman once again disappeared, returning this time around with the nursing school delusion, using the name Nanda Kissoon.
The Minister expressed disappointment that again several young persons have been swindled by the woman but noted his satisfaction that the deception was not allowed to be continued for much longer.
According to the Minister, there is no way that his Ministry could keep track of all deceptive operations thus it is reliant on citizens to be its ‘eyes and ears’.
And in order to ensure that the students can be able to gain some degree of qualifications after investing so much money, the Minister said that he will try to accommodate as many students as possible into courses for which they qualify, adding that once the requisite requirements are met the Ministry offers courses free of cost. At a press conference last Saturday, Minister Ramsammy made the disclosure about the nursing school which, according to him, had been promoting itself on the basis that it has been accredited by the Ministry of Health.
The Health Minister pointed out that the school seems to be boosting its existence by erroneously informing its students and potential students that once they graduate their certificates will be recognised by the Guyana Nursing Council and can be used as admission to the three local nursing schools – the Georgetown School of Nursing, the New Amsterdam Nursing School and the Charles Rosa Nursing School at Linden.
However, the Minister related that the nursing schools have very specific and very rigid requirements for admission, adding that qualifications for those schools are not the same as that for the Inter-American institution.
Students were also informed that once they complete the course at the nursing school they could be recruited to take up jobs in the United States, the Minister had revealed.
The Minister said that he first learnt of the unethical situation when young female students of the school filed complaints with his Ministry even as he disclosed that from information that he had received, the institution has plans to open another branch in Berbice.
And while the Ministry of Health does not have the authority to stop persons from starting such institutions, Minister Ramsammy said his Ministry can, however, advise people about what they are paying for.
And to address the situation, the Minister said that he intends to meet the operators of private nursing schools and other such institutions to extend a warning that legal action will be ensued should they choose to misrepresent their operations. Commenting on Kissoon’s detainment by the police, the Minister proffered the view that she could be charged with a number of offences since reports indicate that a lot of what she said and did at the institution was fraudulent.

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