GPSU gearing to take action against GPHC

Jun 13, 2017 News

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…In light of Matron’s termination

Recently terminated Director of Nursing Services [Matron] of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC], Sister Collene Hicks, is not taking her termination lightly. In fact, Hicks has taken her concerns to the Guyana Public

Service Union [GPSU], this publication has been informed.
When contacted for a comment, Hicks was not willing to comment on the matter. However, GPSU’s Second Vice President, Mr. Mortimer Livan, in an invited comment yesterday said that the Union will be taking action against the hospital’s decision to terminate Hicks. He said that “first we will have to discuss and see what this letter is really about; we have to see what the grounds for termination are before we decide how we will proceed with action, [but] action will be taken.”
According to Livan, the Union had for some time had issues with how the hospital had dealt with Hicks. In fact, he noted that concerns in this regard have been maintained by the union, and these will have to be examined carefully together with the latest termination decision.
Hicks was last Friday issued with a letter of termination which was signed by newly-installed Chief Executive Officer [ag], Brigadier [rtd], George Lewis. Lewis, in commenting on this development, told this publication that the hospital took an informed decision to part ways with Hicks.
Hicks’ termination was recommended following the completion of a Commission of Inquiry [COI] into her conduct at the hospital.
Hicks was sent on administrative leave in July 2016 to facilitate the investigation which commenced in earnest in October of last year. The COI was conducted to determine whether there was any truth to allegations that Hicks’ mode of operation had in fact compromised the proper delivery of health care at the hospital.
The inquiry was triggered by a petition signed by some 150 staffers of the hospital who had demanded that Hicks’ service be terminated because of her reported inability to be a team player among other allegations of unprofessionalism.
Based on its findings the Commission had concluded that Hicks’ continuance as Director of Nursing Services would not be in the best interest of the hospital. A report detailing the findings of the inquiry was completed and handed over to former Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton in December of last year.
However, even before the start of the process, GPSU President, Mr. Patrick Yarde, had insisted that the process was not only “insensitive” but “reckless”. This was in spite of the fact that the Union had chosen a representative to be a part of the Commission, in the person of Mr. Reginald Brotherson, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Public Service within the Ministry of the Presidency.
The Commission was chaired by nurse and Attorney-at-law, Chandrawattie Persaud and the other members included Ms. Laurelle Daw, Director of Nursing Service at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital; Dr. Anwar Hussain who has racked-up decades of service at the GPHC, and former Auditor General, Mr. Anand Goolsarran.
At the completion of the COI, Yarde, in speaking of the Report said, “We have not seen it, neither will we dignify it by examining it.”
Yarde had however noted that the union was in favour of a three-person panel which, he said, is consistent with the Armstrong Tribunal that embraces standard industrial relations guidelines.
He had added, “We feel where there is that level of displeasure it needed to be looked into. We agreed that they do an inquiry into the matter and we nominated someone to be on that panel, but we also gave advice as to the regularity of having such an inquiry.”
According to Yarde, the advice offered by the union was totally ignored.
“Our position was that the panel was biased, and we wrote to them [the [former] Board] about it, even before they proceeded after we were told what was going on. We told them that we would not recognise it [findings] unless they correct it,” Yarde noted. In fact, he related, the then-Chairman of the Board, Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman, for some reason was adamant in proceeding in a manner that the union had objected to.
Yarde, in his objection added “if you are inquiring into something with respect to someone at the highest level it happens, they [the subject of the inquiry] should be able to sit there and listen to every presentation from everyone who has a complaint against them, but that did not occur in this instance.”
This state of affairs, Yarde said, was compounded by the fact that the Matron was not permitted to be accompanied by a union representative when she was summoned by the investigating panel.
”They invited the Matron and we sent an officer to accompany her, but they refused to allow him [the union officer] in the room…Never heard of! We said no, no, that is totally out of place and we would not have anything to do with that,” Yarde added.
He however noted that the Union was not opposed to an inquiry being conducted in a professional and proper manner.
To further amplify its concerns, the union, according to Yarde, had inked its concerns to the former Minister of Public Health [Dr. Norton] and had also communicated similar sentiments to the current Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence, hoping for her intervention.

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