GPHC Board Chairman peeved by behaviour of some Parliamentary Sectoral Committee members

MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH – Chairman of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) Board, Kesaundra Alves Thursday expressed outrage at the deception demonstrated by some members of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Social Services during this week’s visit to the institution.

The Clerk of the Committee wrote to the GPHC seeking permission to “observe the conditions/facilities under which patients are cared for and interact with members of the public and staff at this facility’.

At the pre-visit briefing, Alves informed the Committee and the media that the places selected to be visited were the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department, the Surgical Outpatients Department (SOPD), the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) and the Paediatric Department (Baby Heart).

Once the tour began, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee, indicated that she would like to add three other places to be visited: These were the main Pharmacy, the main Laboratory and the Maternity Unit. This was agreed.

When the touring party left ‘Baby Heart’ and proceeded to the laboratory, Dr. Persaud “broke away from the rest of the group and bolted up the stairs of the pharmacy bond with the media at her heels” Alves recalled.

Suspecting “some mischief was afoot”, Alves demanded that Dr. Persaud and the media return to the agreed tour schedule which was at this point beyond 2 ½ hours long.

These requests were ignored and Dr. Persaud and the media went into the Bond unimpeded.  Other Committee members remained behind and lamented her high handed approach.

“It was distasteful and unethical. Clearly there was some hidden agenda” Alves said.