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GPHC reinstates nurses just as GPSU threatens “civil disobedience”
By Zena Henry
The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) yesterday afternoon threatened “civil disobedience” if public service workers cannot be protected by the rule of law. Union President Patrick Yarde said that pressure would be intensified if senior persons within the system “continue to work arbitrarily against public service workers”.
GPSU President Patrick Yarde
Yarde was speaking directly to what he called a “crude” response from the head of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) in relation to calls for a meeting to discuss the dismissal of two nurses and the suspension of another.
The Union’s intended action was however effectively nullified when the GPHC Board of Directors later in the day announced, via press release, the reinstatement of the three nurses. It was indicated that the Board met yesterday “in relation to the action taken against (3) nurses in the matter concerning the larceny of five (5) vials of Morphine injections from the institution”. It was stated that the disciplinary letters were rescinded and the nurses will be advised that their act is violation of hospital protocol for ordering, storage and use of narcotics “of which they are aware”. The hospital further noted that the matter would be referred to the Nursing Council.
Yarde during the GPSU’s press conference had accused Chief Executive Officer of GPHC, Michael Khan of “ignoring calls to hold a meeting” with the body slated to represent the hospital staff. He charged that the CEO did not follow procedure in disciplining the nurses, by denying them the opportunity to a fair hearing and union representation.
Chairman of the hospital branch and GPSU member, Kemton Alexander, had told media operatives that on August 21 this year, a letter was received from the hospital CEO, informing them that five ampoules of morphine injection were missing from the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit. The CEO also penned that the police had been called in to conduct investigations.
The union, Alexander said, responded in support of the hospital’s position but to date, there had been no update on the police investigations. Instead, in what GPSU called “an unethical and unprofessional and deceitful act”, the nurses were served with dismissal letters on December 3.
The situation had prompted the start of a picket exercise outside the hospital. This was in resistance to the “high handed approach by the hospital management to arbitrarily dismiss and suspend the nurses without giving them a fair hearing,” Alexander noted.
In a letter that was subsequently dispatched by GPSU to the hospital CEO, Alexander said it was noted the union’s concern and displeasure with the procedure adopted by management which did not conform to, “natural justice.” The concern, he had related, was centered on the nurses not being given a hearing and the representation of the workers’ recognized union.
Yarde however emphasized that that the dismissal was in the first place disturbing since the matter of information sharing was discussed in hospital-union meetings as a bilateral engagement. The hospital management, he claimed, waited until he was out of the country to make the arbitrary dismissal.
He had noted that if a meeting was not called within five days, strike action would be considered.
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