Former Guyana Medical Council Chairman Dr Max Hanoman plans to call on the organisation to launch an investigation into how former APNU+AFC Region Five Councillor Carol Joseph was able to access high amounts of prescription painkilling medication.
“It is an independent body and does not need the go ahead from any minister, ministry or anyone. As long as the Medical Council has a formal complaint, they can begin an investigation,” Hanoman told Stabroek News in an interview.
Hanoman said that the case of Joseph being prescribed with continuous use of a drug, which is an opioid, was troubling and should be looked into. “Anytime you see [them] being given in frequent doses, it is reason to probe. They are both habit-forming and dependent drugs. Unscrupulous doctors, because of the love for money, would give them to patients as long as they pay. It is an issue that does not raise as many flags here but addiction to prescription pain medication is very, very common,” Hanoman said.
Two days after she found herself at the centre of allegations that she was using her office to access the prescription drugs at the Fort Wellington Hospital, Joseph resigned.
Joseph was the subject of a complaint by a nurse at the Fort Wellington Hospital, Sherlyn Marks, who had lodged complaints twice last year against her frequent access to pain medication. The nurse had copied her complaint to leading health, regional and government officials but no action had been taken.
The Ministry of Public Health has said nothing on the matter since the story broke.
Stabroek News has seen documents which show that Joseph continues to access the medication at the same hospital. Only last week her name was logged twice in the Patient Narcotic Prescription logbook.
Marks had told this newspaper that months after her first correspondence and a follow-up letter on December 13, 2016, there was no intervention as Joseph continued to access the system.
After her complaint was publicised by this newspaper, Marks was abruptly transferred to a community clinic. She has said that she believed it was because she had spoken out.
Marks’ original letter of complaint was sent to the Regional Health Officer and the acting Ward Sister of the Fort Wellington Hospital. It was also copied to Dr Kay Shako, Director of Regional Health Services; Dr Shamdeo Persaud, Chief Medical Officer; Taramattie Barker, Chief Nursing Officer; and a Matron Lyken (only name used), who is the acting Ward Sister. None of these persons acted on the complaint. Region Five Chairman Vickchand Ramphal and former Public Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Trevor Thomas were also sent copies of the letter.
Former Public Health Minister Dr George Norton had told Stabroek News that he had asked his Chief Medical Officer to investigate the matter and had even shown the letter to a female parliamentarian.
The Chief Medical Officer said that he was aware of the letter but could not remember in detail its contents. However, he noted that it was sent to the Medical Council for investigation.
However, when contacted, Head of the Medical Council of Guyana Dr Navin Rambarran pointed out that the council would not be responsible for handling a Ministry of Public Health investigation, which deals with the use of power by a councillor to obtain drugs. He said that if such an investigation by the Ministry of Public Health found a doctor acted improperly, then his agency would step in to find out about the violations.
Hanoman said that while he was not privy to patient details of the case, on the surface it seems that the doctors who ordered the prescriptions breached a series of protocols pertaining to the large doses. As a result, he said that once that formal complaint was made to the council, it should have acted.
“[They] are highly addictive… they are only prescribed for severe short-term pain or for people with chronic illnesses. Giving a patient [name of drug] twice a day is madness and the doctor who would do that should be investigated,” Hanoman said.
A member of the council told this newspaper that the letter that was sent was not addressed directly to the council and it was not a formal complaint. The council member explained that its executive took the decision to not investigate because it was a photocopied letter from Marks, who was complaining against a councillor and not a doctor.
“It was not an issue of saying that a doctor is suspected of any breaches or any wrongdoings. That is our mandate. In this incident, what came was about the wrongdoing of a councillor. The letter that came to us was not a letter of complaint but that first letter that the nurse wrote to Dr Norton …we were incidental in the process,” the council member said.
“We took the decision to forward that letter to the Guyana Nursing Council because here you had a complaint about the nurse too, that she was being victimised. Basically, the nurse’s complaint is beyond our jurisdiction. The Ministry of Health can refer the matter. It did not do so formally. There was no specific complaint against a doctor, so our hands were tied,” the member added.
However, the member also said that the council will investigate once a formal complaint is made. “We have a form that they can access online or can write to us and we will thoroughly investigate,” the member said.
But that complaint will not come from Marks, who has since been working at the Bath/Experiment Health Centre, to which she was abruptly transferred.
According to relatives close to her, she feels she has been punished for her role in highlighting the wrongdoing of a public official and doctors.
“She has to live with the throwing of words that she likes to talk too much and it is because of that she is where she is now. Imagine she was called to Georgetown by the Ministry of Health and they came down on her as if she had done something wrong. They told her she shared a patient medical information and she could get knock off and all of that. One person told her that she lucky that it was within the region that she was transferred and not in the bush [interior],” her relative said. “Who now in Berbice hay would want to talk about anything involving anybody that get lil bit power?” the relative added.
