Inquiry into complaints against GPHC’s Matron completed

Dec 08, 2016 News

– to be reviewed by Public Health Minister tomorrow

Despite a recent administrative shakeup at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), an investigation into complaints levelled against the activities of the Director of Nursing Services (Matron), Sister Collene Hicks,

Embattled GPHC Matron, Sister Collene Hicks.

has been completed.
The five-member Committee which was set up to investigate the Matron had requested a two-week extension from the Board of Directors. However, this publication understands that the Board was not able to meet ahead of its November 30, 2016 dissolution to vote for an extension of the process.
It is not clear whether the extension was granted. But former Chairman of the Board, Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman, was convinced that the process was destined to be stalled with this development.
However, this publication was informed that the investigation is officially completed and a report detailing the findings and recommendations are to be forwarded to Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton.
Minister Norton in an invited comment, yesterday, disclosed that while he has not yet seen the report, a meeting is scheduled for Friday during which the findings will be discussed.
But the possibility exists that the findings could be rejected by some factions. Even before the process had commenced the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), which has been representing Hicks’s interest, said that it had no confidence in the Committee or the findings it was likely to produce.
This was in light of its belief that the Committee consisted of individuals who had close links to the hospital. It concluded that the association of some of the members of the Committee could influence the conduct of the inquiry making it prejudicial against the subject of the inquiry.
In this regard the Union had informed that although it sent multiple letters to Dr. Hanoman, in his capacity as Chairman, the Board still went ahead with the selected Committee without considering its concerns.
But Dr. Hanoman insisted that the Board had consulted with the Union and even delayed the investigation so that it could nominate a member to the Committee.
The Committee members included Mr. Reginald Brotherson, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Public Service within the Ministry of the Presidency who was chosen by the Union; former GPSU General Secretary turned Attorney-at-law, Chandrawattie Persaud, the Chairperson; Ms. Laurelle Daw, Director of Nursing Services at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital for the past seven years; Dr. Anwar Hussain who has racked-up decades of service at the GPHC and former Auditor General, Mr. Anand Goolsarran.
Commenting on reports of the concerns raised by the GPSU, Minister Norton had last month said, “If we are going to suspend somebody and investigate them we must do it as efficient as possible.”
It was therefore the belief of the Union that its concerns should have been taken into consideration before the start of the inquiry. “If the Union has a problem then we must address it; don’t go creating confrontations…We have somebody who is off the job, a job that is very important for the health of this nation and we can’t afford to grandstand,” added the Minister.
“If I was handling it, it would have been three persons and not five on that commission and people who satisfied all those concerned,” he added.
Hicks was sent on administrative leave in July to facilitate the COI. But the work of the COI only commenced in earnest during October and was expected to last for one month.
The Committee was tasked with assessing the truthfulness of allegations or complaints levelled against the Matron and make a determination as to whether these have been injurious or destructive to the effective and efficient delivery of the health care delivered at the GPHC.
Among other things, the Committee was expected to specifically examine the promotion of nurses under Matron Hicks to determine whether these were based on merit.
The Committee was also tasked with examining the relationship between the Matron and the doctors of the institution to ascertain if this affected the delivery of health care at the hospital.
The process was essentially designed to determine whether the Matron committed acts of insubordination during the period September 15, 2015 to July 20, 2016.
With no Board currently in place, the fate of the Matron is likely to be in the hands of the Minister of Public Health under whose purview the public health facilities fall.

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