CMO assures no bias in Medical Council’s nomination process

Aug 07, 2018 News

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“I really think that they should be careful and ensure that they review carefully the regulations that govern the election process because I would not break or change any of those recommended regulations. I would follow those as closely as possible at all times.”
This was utterance of Chief Medical Officer [CMO], Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, in response to claims by a number of doctors practising in the health sector who are of the view that something sinister is afoot regarding the upcoming elections of the Medical Council of Guyana.
In fact, there have been some recent missives, which even speculated about moves to politicise the Council by ensuring that the majority of the current members remain the only viable nominees. This is in light of claims that a list of submitted nominees has been completely disregarded by the CMO.
Several doctors in recent days have been calling on the CMO to bring clarity to the perceived state of affairs.
But the theory put forward by the doctors could not be farther from the truth, according to Dr. Persaud, who serves as the Council’s ex officio member. By virtue of his position, he is tasked with managing the election process.
Yesterday, Dr. Persaud, who has been functioning in the capacity of CMO for the past 10 years, made it clear, “This is not the first election that I have conducted on behalf of the Ministry [of Public Health] and I have always followed the same regulations.”
The life of the Medical Council is slated to come to an end in October and, according to Dr. Persaud, “We have started to put together our mechanism.”
As part of the process governed by law, Dr. Persaud said that letters were sent out to all medical institutions across the country asking for nominations. He displayed a copy of the said letter dated May 11, 2018, which he insisted was disseminated to the various hospitals he named.
“We also make a practice of sending them a list of the eligible persons…The law requires that the persons who are nominated, first of all, must be recommended by a registered medical practitioner and then seconded…the law is very clear on that,” said Dr. Persaud as, he explained that each doctor could nominate up to six doctors and seconded.
Notices are also usually placed in two daily newspapers [Guyana Chronicle and Stabroek News] inviting doctors to nominate.
Submission of nominations must be done within a confined period. The closing date for nominations for the upcoming elections was June 10, 2018.
Nominations are usually made in writing to the CMO. Once in receipt of the nominations, Dr. Persaud is then tasked with reviewing the nominations to ensure that those who are nominated have at least five years of registered practice in Guyana and that they are currently registered. “They must have been registered by the end of February of this year and that sometimes is a little issue. Because a lot of times some doctors when they register late they are unable to stand for the election,” Dr. Persaud related.
However, once the nominees are eligible to be elected, Dr. Persaud said that he is then tasked with writing to each of them outlining who nominated and seconded their nomination and seek their concurrence.
“Each nominee has a chance to accept or refuse…We had eight nominations and one has actually refused,” said Dr. Persaud. He disclosed that a list accepting nominees as well as those who refused is usually published on three consecutive occasions.
“Once we have more than six candidates and there are no objections by the last publication, we will go ahead and hold the election…The law says that sitting members can also be nominated and they too can accept or refuse,” said Dr. Persaud.
According to Dr. Persaud, of the current six sitting members of the Council, five have been re-nominated and they have accepted. “That is of their own choice; I have nothing to do with that…” said Dr. Persaud.
The CMO, however, revealed that he has been in receipt of a letter signed by ‘Concerned doctors’ which sought to nominate a total of 12 doctors. But according to Dr. Persaud, he had no choice but to reject those nominees.
“First of all, this letter was not signed by any registered medical doctor…there was no list of signatories as the letter suggests because the letter was not signed. The way that it is supposed to be done, each candidate has to be nominated by someone and seconded by another person…I don’t think they understand that legality of the process,” Dr. Persaud noted.
For this reason, the CMO said that he was unable to approve the list of nominees and has since continued the process with those who met the requirement.
According to him, although in the past the Council was given the chance to recommend six nominees who needed the approval of the Health Minister, “since 2002 we changed that and allowed all the doctors to be nominated if they are eligible and secondly for them to vote in the process.”
The current state of affairs, Dr. Persaud said is that the eligible nominees will be a part of the elections since any other approach will in essence see him breaking the law.

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