Dear Editor,
It’s a sad day when persons placed in the public trust ignore professional ethics and social responsibility, and make fools of themselves in the media trying to defend the indefensible. I refer to a letter written by the apologist for Carol Joseph, the Region 5 RDC CEO, Mr Ovid Morrison, which was published in Stabroek News, April 25, 2017.
In his response to a previous letter written by me, on the access to drugs at the Fort Wellington hospital by the former APNU+AFC RDC Councillor, Morrison is correct when he said that “Ms. Joseph could not have accessed these drugs all by herself since they are kept under secure circumstances at the Hospital” and that “the dosages of medication Ms Joseph received were prescribed by Doctors.”
Morrison is also correct when he wrote, “I must note however that implicit in the allegations of her abuse of medication at the Fort Wellington Cottage Hospital, is the insinuation that the Doctors at this Hospital were less than professional or worse aided and abetted Ms Joseph in her alleged abuse.”
But nowhere in his letter did he question why, despite repeated complaints in relation to access to drugs by Carol Joseph, an investigation was not done by the Regional Health Officer (RHO) of Region 5, Dr Stephen Cheefoon. Neither did he explain his reasons for instructing the RHO to immediately transfer the whistle-blower, Staff Nurse/Midwife Sherilyn Marks from the Ft Wellington Hospital where she performed exemplary service for the past four years. Instead, the REO, Ovid Morrison sought to defend allegations of medical misconduct by two doctors working at the Ft Wellington Hospital under his administration, who helped to facilitate this addiction.
The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln once said, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” In Morrison’s case, he should have remained silent and remove all doubt of his political agenda and stupidity in defence of a fellow PNC comrade, Carol Joseph, despite the information published in the press. He should have known that a responsible press would never publish a story like this without first seeing the evidence in order to avoid a lawsuit.
Editor, one of the doctors (name withheld) that Morrison is seeking to defend has, with the exception of about six months in 2016, been writing prescriptions for Carol Joseph since the year 2008. Evidence shows that Joseph used these prescriptions almost daily for the past nine years to access this drug, free of cost, from government supplies at the Ft Wellington Hospital.
The other doctor (name also withheld), whom I was told, often wrote five prescriptions at a time is known to have written similar prescriptions during the six months period in 2016. Ironically, the second doctor stopped writing prescriptions for her abruptly when Nurse Marks brought the issue of drug abuse to the attention of the RHO, Dr Cheefoon.
Was this merely a coincidence? Or was this doctor afraid of being accused of medical misconduct and took the necessary steps to protect his professional licence and career?
Then there is the allegation against the RHO himself who, knowing Ms Joseph’s history wrote a prescription on October 25, 2016 for Ms Joseph and ordered his staff at the nurses station to administer the drug to her, despite their refusal to do so on the grounds that the prescription presented by Ms Joseph was not in her name.
Disturbingly, I am aware that, despite the immense coverage the Carol Joseph drug access was given in the press, transgressions are still occurring at the Ft Wellington hospital and the nursing staff are being threatened with transferral if “they talk” about it.
I have documented evidence that shows Carol Joseph has been getting the drug in question since 2008. So how does the REO explain or even try to justify the actions of the two doctors under his administration, who collectively, are responsible for writing these prescriptions for Carol Joseph all these years? Surely the doctors must have known they were contributing to her problem. But now that the REO is aware of all the allegations of access to the drug and medical misconduct taking place under his watch at the Ft Wellington Hospital in Region 5, I expect that he will act professionally and advise the Ministry of Public Health to name a special bipartisan committee to investigate these allegations of corruption.
Yours faithfully,
Harry Gill
PPP/C MP
