GPHC breached laws in hiring Dr. Persaud

Dec 01, 2010 News

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– Minister Manickchand

The laws of Guyana were breached when the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) hired convicted sex felon Dr Vishwamintra Persaud.
This was pointed out yesterday by Minister of Human Services and Social Security Priya Manickchand, who is also an attorney-at-law, when she blasted the Director of Medical Services of the GPHC Dr Madan Rambarran over related statements attributed to him.
According to Manickchand, the Medical Practitioners Act says that in order for a doctor from overseas to be registered in Guyana, he must be registered and have a valid licence in the country from which he comes and this was not the case with Dr. Persaud.
She further pointed out that the person must be of good character to be eligible, and questioned how a person who is convicted of sexual abuse perpetrated on a child could be considered as having good character.
The Minister, in response to comments by Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy that they were seeking legal advice, said that she would provide it publicly and for free.

According to the Minister, the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act of 1997 provided for his termination. She stressed that the Minister did not have to wait on any long, written advice.
The Minister said Persaud is on probation at the Hospital and the Act says that a new employee may be asked to serve on a probationary period of employment but the employer may terminate the employment at any time during the probation period for any reason without notice.
Minister Manickchand, who made the remarks earlier yesterday before a statement informing of Dr. Persaud’s sacking was released by the Ministry of Health, said that to know the issue was still being dragged on bothered her adding that Dr Rambarran most recent “indignant statement to the newspaper  was most telling, very sad and very contradictory in his own words.”
She said that she believed that the statement sought to justify a previous error in judgment in hiring the man and then a very misinformed statement defended the employment
The Minister said that the first statement he made was very offensive and the most recent was severely flawed.
In his statement Dr Rambarran called for objectivity and balance, seeking to imply that there is “a whole set of finger pointing”.
The Minister questioned how objective he was being given that he only listened to one side of the story (which was from the perpetrator) and had not spoken with the girl or her parents.
“Dr Rambarran tells us he talked to the perpetrator, and this influenced the hiring of Dr Persaud. In his admission it exposed two things.”
She pointed to the fact that he (Dr. Rambarran) knew that the Medical Council in New York had found Dr. Persaud guilty and had stipulated his punishment, as well as the fact that the decisions of their Court and Professional Medical Council both say that Dr Persaud is a threat to society and must not practice.
She said that all this was known and ignored and as such he was still hired.
Manickchand noted that Dr Rambaran said that people can be reformed and must treated as human beings, to which she explained that she concurs that he must be treated as a human being, but one that has been convicted of a sexual crime against a child.
She said, too, that the hospital hired the man even though the period given for reformation has not expired.
According to the minister, the GPHC acted as a court of appeal by hiring him which by the act overturned the decision of what the two entities made in the US. “What they did was ignore!”
The Minister insisted that Dr Persaud should not be allowed to work at the hospital where he can come into contact with poor, vulnerable children
“He can’t work where he would come into contact with children….The children that go to that hospital are poor and vulnerable… in another country he was a predator…he preyed on that girl for three years.
In responding to Dr Rambarran’s statement she said that the laws of Guyana along with the policies of the Government are clear on sexual offences and the perpetrators.
She said that Guyana has a zero tolerance on the issue, adding that Rambarran and others who agree with his position should advise themselves on how and why laws are passed.
Manickchand said that in Guyana persons convicted for such offences are monitored for life which says, “We don’t trust you and you will be supervised for life.”
She said that if Dr Rambarran and the hospital do not like the law then they could lobby to seek to have it changed, but it is the current law and as such has to be obeyed
“The thing for them to be doing is to apologise for this…questioning what I did is most conceited.”

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