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Head of Mental Health Unit, Food & Drug Dept. replaced
Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Health (MOH) has replaced the Head of Department for the Government Analyst Food and Drug Department (GAFDD) as well as the Mental Health Unit.
Kaieteur News understands that former Director of the GA-FDD, Dr. Marlan Cole was recently removed from the post, a void that has been filled by Ms. Tandeka Barton who previously served as the GA-FDD’s Principal Analytical Scientific Officer and is a part-time lecturer at the University of Guyana (UG).
A source attached to the MoH, explained that the Ministry is moving to reshuffle a number of Head of Departments in the coming weeks.
In addition to Cole, the Health Ministry has, thus far, replaced Director of the Mental Health Unit, Dr. Util Richmond-Thomas with Dr. Timothy Morgan, who has been serving as the Coordinator of that Unit.
Dr. Morgan was the Best Graduating student among the batch of Guyanese doctors that returned to the country in 2013 after studying in Cuba for six years. Dr. Richmond-Thomas has been reassigned to the Enterprise Health Centre, East Coast Demerara, following a re-evaluation of the work of the unit.
The Health Ministry had written to Dr. Richmond-Thomas, first terminating her services then rescinding it before assigning her as a Government Medical Officer, according to correspondence seen by this newspaper.
The termination of her contract as Director of the Mental Health Unit was originally dated January 27, 2022 and should have taken effect on March 23, 2022, but the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health on March 22, 2022 informed her that the termination was withdrawn.
“Please be informed that after further deliberation on the matter, a decision has been taken to rescind your termination and for you to be redesignated Government Medical Officer with effect from 2022-03-23 inclusive,” the letter addressed to Dr. Richmond-Thomas stated.
Meanwhile, in the case of Cole, he was reassigned to work closely with the Director of Standards and Technical Services to assist with capacity building with particular focus on quality control.
Cole was on Friday officially stripped of his responsibilities as Director of the GA-FDD.
In a letter, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Malcolm Watkins told Cole: “You are instructed to meet with the Chief Medical Officer and the Director of Standards and Technical Services to discuss your scope of work, the specifics of your new role and the activities to be undertaken in that regard.”
The former GA-FDD Head had worked with the Ministry of Health for 27 years and is a fixed establishment employee since 2013. As such, his reassignment has been regarded as a demotion.
Prior to the demotion, Cole had been sent on administrative leave.
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