Latest update April 9th, 2025 12:59 AM
Attacks at GPHC force CEO to call on public to be respectful
GPHC CEO, Brigadier George Lewis
-as media operatives urged to verify information before publishing
Patients assaulting staff members continue to be an issue that public health institutions have been grappling with for some time. The country’s premier health institution, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC] has been no exception.
This state of affairs was confirmed by Chief Executive Officer, Brigadier George Lewis. Taking the spotlight on behalf his staffers at a recent press conference, the CEO urged that persons accessing the services of the public hospital do so while maintaining respect for staffers.
“They must speak to members of staff with respect,” said Brigadier Lewis. He recalled at least two recent incidents where persons seeking medical services were disrespectful to staffers.
“We had two incidents, one in the Accident and Emergency Department where the relatives of two patients assaulted a doctor. That is not right! Members of the public have to treat health care workers with professionalism and with respect,” asserted Brigadier Lewis.
In the other incident, “In one of our laboratories, a patient threw a substance in the direction of one of our Laboratory Technicians primarily because the staff was explaining to her the process within which that sample was required to be taken and that the sample was compromised.”
The CEO nevertheless admitted, “From time to time, some of our workers do treat patients incorrectly and I would say to you that this administration will not condone such behaviour.”
But Brigadier Lewis urged that any patient who has any issue with a staff member or the treatment meted out to them should make an official complaint.
“If you are aggrieved, kindly report to our Complaints Department so we can address your issue,” urged Brigadier Lewis at the recent press conference.
“If there are any patients who visit this hospital and are aggrieved by attitude, the behaviour or the way any member of staff speaks with them, we are asking the members of the public [patients] to direct their complaints to the Complaints Department,” said Brigadier Lewis.
The GPHC, according to the CEO, currently has in place an active Complaints Department. The Complaints Department, he said, is located at a building a short distance after entering the New Market Street entrance [of the northern gate of the hospital].
“We are going to take your complaints and we are going to investigate your complaints and I can assure you that whenever disciplinary action is required, it will be taken,” the CEO asserted.
Brigadier Lewis noted that although the hospital is not in the habit of responding to misrepresentation peddled in the public domain, it is appealing to media operatives to clarify information before seeking to publish same.
“We at the GPHC would like to ask the press whenever they receive stories…to seek to try to clarify with the organisation before they publish these stories. There are different sides to any issue and we have nothing to hide. We are open and we ask the members of the press to seek to clarify the stories or the reports that they receive [with] the administration of the GPHC and we will be open with them,” Brigadier Lewis assured.
The CEO’s disclosure came on the heels of allegations that a woman was mistreated while admitted in the Maternity Department of the hospital. The 36-year-old woman, Jennifer Jagdeo, had visited the hospital to deliver her first child but was found to have many complications. The complications, according Head of Obstetrics and Gyneacology Department, Dr. Lucio Pedro, resulted in the death of the newborn shortly after delivery.
Dr. Pedro also denied that the woman was mistreated while in the care of the hospital.
However, reports suggest that instead of filing a complaint of the alleged mistreatment, the woman turned to the media to air her concerns, thus Brigadier Lewis’ call for the media to verify information before publishing.
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