(Jamaica Gleaner) An attack by allegedly gay men on a worker at the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital on Monday has prompted a review of the security arrangements at the facility.
Kevin Dixon, a health records clerk employed to the institution, was attacked and beaten by the men after he told them to remove their vehicle from the designated staff parking area. Dixon had to be hospitalised.
The attack prompted colleagues of Dixon’s to stay off the job in protest.
A meeting on Wednesday between management at the hospital and Howard Litchmore of the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP) resulted in an agreement to immediately put additional security personnel in place at the hospital.
But while the meeting was in progress, the men again attacked staff members with stones.
Reports are that on Monday, a car with five men, including a sick person, drove on to the compound and headed to the staff parking area. A security officer some distance away shouted at them to move the vehicle, but they apparently didn’t hear.
Dixon, who was just leaving work and who had reached the parking lot, then relayed the message to the driver.
The driver then allegedly ran the car over one of his feet, after which three of the men alighted and attacked him, leaving him bleeding from a cut to his head.
“We were told, while the worker was being attacked, the security failed to come to his assistance,” Litchmore told The Gleaner on Wednesday.
“We were told there was no intervention by the security whether because of their limited number or they were afraid to intervene, but there was no intervention. The guy had to run and take cover inside the registration department.”
The police were called to the scene, but alleged eyewitnesses said that the lawmen left without even addressing the perpetrators.
“The workers are feeling disrespected because the police came and talked to the gentleman (Dixon) and asked him to make a report at the station while the aggressors were still on the compound, and no attempt was made to remove them,” said Litchmore.
“That is why the workers feel disrespected.”
After the attack, staff within the records department withdrew their service in solidarity with their colleague. This irked the men, who accused the staff of anti-gay discrimination.
The sick person was later registered and is currently a patient at the hospital.
A video of the rant is being circulated and another purportedly showing a man modelling in the nude in the hospital car park.
“It’s an intimidatory strategy to scare people from approaching them. They use that strategy at all times,” Litchmore said.
Efforts to get a comment from the police and from chief executive officer of the hospital Delroy Morgan were unsuccessful.