The Ministry of Public Health says that the nurse who complained about the abuse of medication by now resigned Region Five Councillor Carol Joseph breached public service rules. It has since sent Nurse Sherlyn Marks’s file to the Department of Public Service for action.
“That matter, as far as I am aware, has been sent to the [Department of] Public Service…. They [the Ministry of Public Health] would have done their investigations and sent it on… since I am told that there are several parts of the … regulations which would have been broken,” Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence told Stabroek News when asked for an update on the matter.
This newspaper contacted Permanent Secretary of the Department of Public Service Reginald Brotherson who promised to give an update on the matter this week.
The sending of Marks’s file to the Department of Public Service will be seen in some quarters as targeting a whistleblower. The nurse had tried on several occasions to advise her superiors about the alleged abuse of medication to no avail. She then drew the matter to the attention of a legislator. Targeting of whistleblowers is seen as contravening open society principles. The APNU+AFC government had said it was committed to bringing in whistle-blowing legislation but two years after taking office has failed to do this. The action against Marks would be seen as running counter to the expressed support for legislation to protect whistleblowers. Marks’ action forced the resignation of a longtime loyalist of the PNCR, the main component of the governing coalition.
Relatives close to Marks told this newspaper that there seems to be a communication gap between Marks and her employer because she is not aware that her file was sent to the Department of Public Service. Marks, her relative explained, had only visited the Ministry of Public Health once and was never questioned but was sent away because the minister was out of the country at the time. She was told that the minister would look at the matter when she returned.
“How can an investigation be launched by the ministry and she was not given the right of her voice. She is the person at the centre of this and only now we are hearing about this? Wow! I don’t know what else to say,” her relative said.
Lawrence has distanced herself from her ministry’s decision to involve the Department of Public Service, saying that it came after an investigation, initiated by complaints from “concerned citizens,” revealed that “rules were broken” by the nurse.
“I have not been involved in it. It is an admin matter. I got a few letters from some lawyers. I got letters from some public-spirited citizens who were concerned [about how] the information was shared,” Lawrence stated.
Joseph resigned from the Region Five Regional Democratic Council on April 21 this year, two days after Stabroek News published a report on her alleged abuse of medication.
The matter had been drawn to the public’s notice by PPP/C Member of Parliament Harry Gill, after Marks reported to him that her complaints to senior medical officials about the Joseph case had been ignored.
Marks was abruptly transferred by Region Five Regional Executive Officer Ovid Morrison, after the news item on Joseph’s case appeared in this newspaper. She was transferred from the Fort Wellington Hospital to a village clinic.
Morrison’s transfer of the nurse has been condemned and there have been calls for it to be rescinded.
Gill has since filed a formal complaint with the Medical Council of Guyana (MCG) and the five doctors at the centre of the allegations have been written to as the council opened an investigation.
Gill had pointed out in the complaint to the MCG that Nurse Marks had written to then Minister of Public Health Dr George Norton on the matter on December 13, 2016. In that letter, Marks had she was being harassed and intimidated by Joseph because of the complaint she had lodged with Dr Chefoon about the medication. Marks also sent her letter to a number of other regional and health officials who did nothing.
Gill noted that the Medical Practitioners (Code of Conduct and Standards of Practice) Regulations 2008 – Responsibilities to Patients, Regulation 7- paragraph (5) states: “A medical practitioner shall not expose his patients to risks which may arise from a compromise of their own health status (eg dependence on alcohol or other drugs, HIV infection, hepatitis and the like).” In addition, Regulation 36- paragraph (11) reads: “The Medical Council may regard the prescription or supply of drugs of dependence otherwise than in the course of bona fide treatment as a serious professional misconduct.”
Gill urged that the MCG conduct the investigation, in keeping with its own Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, to protect the integrity of the medical profession.
Head of the MCG Dr Navindranauth Rambarran has explained that the investigative process will be a thorough one, and because of the protocols that need to be followed it could take a while.
Meanwhile, Lawrence said she was concerned about the matter of patients’ medical information being made public. She said she understood that not only was Joseph’s medical record made public but other patients’ and some records were even posted to social media.
As such she has written to the Director of Regional Health Services to conduct a separate investigation into this issue.
“Information was placed on Facebook, not only with the prime patient but other patients’ names were on Facebook. That concerns me a lot.
“I have written to the Director of Regional Health Services to have an investigation done, the Permanent Secretary has stepped in with the PPO [Principle Personnel Officer] and they would have recognized that from the information we would have received, from the lawyers and so on, there were breaches of the public service rules. I am very concerned,” Lawrence added.
As regards what roles the doctors played in the issuance of drugs to Joseph, Lawrence said that she will await the findings of the MCG.
However, she pointed out, “If Ms Joseph is a patient, it is not her who would write the prescription it is the doctors.”
