What functions does the Medical Council perform in Guyana?

Nov 22, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to a published press release of the Guyana Medical Council (GMC) in response to my last Friday column in which I asserted a previous position that many of the Cuban trained Guyanese doctors are not competent. In its press release, the GMC advised me to report any misconduct or malpractice. To use strong words, this is convenient amnesia. I have done not one or two but dozens of columns on misconduct, terrible attitudes, incompetence and malpractice in the medical profession in Guyana. In many of those columns, I reported on the death that resulted. The GMC never in even one instance took an investigative look. This is a body that does not serve the interest of poor patients who have suffered and who have paid the ultimate price because of our broken system in the delivery of public medicine.
I will cite four columns the contents of which would have attracted the attention of any decent medical council in any decent country. Dale Andrews, senior reporter at this newspaper died a few months ago of cardiac arrest. He was a heart patient at the Georgetown Hospital. He was on daily medical treatment. One Friday afternoon, he ran out of tablets. It was a weekend. He kept his medical papers and clinic card in his car. The outpatient section was closed. We saw a doctor that initially had admitted Dale the year before when he had collapsed.
She refused to sign a prescription. We showed her the clinic card but she still refused. She was abusive to Mr. Andrews. We got the tablets through the intervention of then CEO, Mike Khan. Dr. Sheik Amir refused to see me about my complaint. When I wrote about his attitude, he threatened libel and demanded an apology. What did the GMC do? Nothing! Member of Parliament, Michael Carrington called me at 4 P.M. to say an Amerindian woman from the interior was at A&E since early morning. I went down to A&E. She was in the same state she was in since 6 a.m when she first arrived. I asked Mike Khan to intervene. He did. The doctors told me, it would take three hours before they get the results of the blood tests. That meant around 7 pm. She died two days after.
The same Parliamentarian urgently called me to say his daughter is at the Diamond hospital with an excruciating pain but the doctors are in a room chatting because they refused to work until the work station is cleaned up. Leonard Craig contacted me to say he has chest pains but Dr. Bux in charge of A&E is refusing treatment. On arrival, Craig told me he has chest pains and for hours was just waiting. Dr. Bux and I had an exchange. Bux told me he is refusing to see Craig because Craig had raised his voice to his staff. Bux said he wanted an apology. I told Bux of the serious complaint of chest pain but he insisted Craig must apologize. I took Craig to the Caribbean Heart Institute.
Next was my Chinese neighbor at the corner of Louisa Row and Hadfield Street. His restaurant was robed. He was shot. He stayed at a bench for hours untreated at A&E. He died on the bench. Mike Khan promised me an investigation but it wasn’t done. These four examples were each made into a separate column. The officials at the GMC probably didn’t read any of these four articles plus about a dozen more I did on medical malpractice. The GMC is as neglectful as any other dysfunctional institution in this country. Medical malpractice has killed dozens at public institutions; all of whom came from the poorer classes. More will die. No one will sue. The GMC will not act. Why should they? Those who could afford it go to private hospitals.
I will end with the contents of another column. My mother-in-law took ill. She went to a private hospital where her personal physician worked. He is from India. His name is Kumar. I am told he has left Guyana. All efforts to contact Kumar failed because he turned off his cell phone. My mother-in-law died. My cousin was ill and was hospitalized at the same hospital. He died on Republic Day, 2014. On that day, this private hospital had only one doctor in the entire hospital working and he was in the emergency room. My cousin died that day without seeing a doctor. All these details are in my columns. Medical malpractice is as much a concern for Guyanese as police blundering, GPL disruptions etc, in this country. The Guyana Medical Council must fulfill its mandate to the Guyanese people
Frederick Kissoon

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News