Even as it expands its services and has applied for permission from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set up a medical lab in Kingston, Georgetown, United States-headquartered remote medical services provider, RemoteMD, has come under fire for the disparity in pay for locals.
The EPA on Tuesday notified that filed under Shondell Reid, Remote MD Services Guyana Inc. had applied for the establishment of a medical laboratory and that the project is exempt from having to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
The Stabroek News reached out to RemoteMD though email and telephone to no avail.
Last month, Remote MD announced that it was undertaking works in cooperation with the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.
“RemoteMD proudly announces the formal opening of RemoteMD Services Guyana Inc. Like all of our other locations, our Georgetown Offices Specialize in Occupational Health, Industrial Medicine and Urgent Care. We are committed to excellence today and every day. For our Corporate Clients, Employees and Families we exist to protect YOU & YOUR most valuable asset, YOUR HUMAN RESOURCES. Personal Health Insurances are welcome for all of YOUR Urgent Care needs,” its Facebook platform announced in September.
The project address is listed as Lot 125 Suite ‘A’ Barrack Street, Kingston Georgetown. Barrack Street is a short distance away from Mercy Hospital’s Parade Street location.
The establishment of the lab would cut into the services available from local labs.
While it says that it was submitting the proposal for the occupational health needs of Guyana Logistics and Services Incorporated and appreciative of the opportunity to do so, RemoteMD’s five page project summary does detail much of what the company wants to do here and gives a background of all the services the company offers and a history of its works and founder.
“RemoteMD (RMD) and its family of companies employ a highly trained, dedicated staff delivering services internationally on all seven continents, across a broad range of medical, security and logistical disciplines and sectors. As such, MD is uniquely qualified to provide a fully integrated response to client’s needs. RemoteMD delivers its products and services according to client requirements and uses a dynamic, efficient approach to all operations that require an imaginative and responsive management style. ” the project summary states.
The summary informs that RMD has developed a reputation for excellence in medical care and from its modest beginning in 2000, it has grown into one of the “busiest centers of its type seeing over 20,000 patients per year.”
“Yet, the staff has never deviated from the original objective of providing extraordinary, cost-effective health care worldwide. As an internationally recognized leader in Industrial Medicine, RemoteMD has routinely tailored services to suit the needs of clients and patients,” it adds.
Medical staff, according to the document, consists of ‘devoted Board-Certified Physicians, Registered Nurses, Registered X-Ray Technologists, Certified Medical Assistants, Occupational Coordinators, and office personnel with extensive backgrounds in Occupational Medicine, Emergency Medicine/Urgent Care, Internal Medicine, and Family Practice.”
“Remote MD physicians are trained in importance of physical exams to ensure Guyana Logistics & Support Services’ employees are fully compliant …” it added.
Additionally, physicians, the company said, are experienced at managing job-related injuries and illnesses. The company also boasts of RemoteMD’s full-time staff of physicians being “available 24/7/365 for medical consults with our remote paramedics.”
Incoming calls
And to ensure paramedics have immediate access to the physicians, RemoteMD maintains three physicians on call at any one time. Incoming calls are automatically routed to the next available physician guaranteeing 99.9% first call answer.
There are also an on-site Industrial Remote Environment Medical Specialists (IREMS), who are all full-time paramedics who function as physician extenders in the field and are all cross- trained to multi-task in a number of roles. They include, HSE (OSH, Occupational Safety & Health Specialist) Wellness Programs (customised to suit the work environment), clerks, on-site environmental health and hygiene audits, and compliance.
RemoteMD can secure other levels of providers such as Physician Assistants (PA) the company says and it routinely reviews standard medical &equipment packages (SMP) and makes recommendations for specific areas of operation.
It also offers medical case management. “These services include coordinating follow up care within the RemoteMD network of specialists and maintaining communication with those specialists when applicable. This option will be tailored to meet the needs of the client and the patient,” the company states.
But while Remote MD boasts of its broad medical services offered and caters for the oil & gas sector, the company has been criticised by insiders knowledgeable of its working arrangement here and who have said that local employees are not paid the same as foreign medical staff.
“Remote MD is a US-owned company headquartered in New Orleans; Remote MD is quartered locally in St. Joseph Hospital and staffed with Guyanese doctors. The company has secured service contracts for most of the ExxonMobil contractors for mainly expatriate workers. The Guyanese doctors are paid a local-rate salary (approx. US$2,500 monthly) and a small percentage on each patient examined, however, Remote MD bills at United States medical rates, leading to bills above 9,000 USD per patient per visit,” a letter writer with inside knowledge of the operations wrote to the Editor of this newspaper.
“Medical costs are submitted by Exxon for recovery. The local doctors are undoubtedly grateful for the opportunity and must believe they are adequately compensated but the level of profit on their services must also be cause for discomfort. RemoteMD is a seasoned operator in the global oil & gas industry and their practice exposes the need for urgent regulation of local content to protect Guyanese working for foreign companies and also to provide information to those doing the cost-recovery audits,” the writer added.
It is not the first time the issue of disparity in wages for the same work was raised by persons working in the oil & gas sector.
In July of this year, workers employed at the Guyana Shore Base Incorporated (GYSBI) claimed they were terminated after they complained about the disparity in salaries among locals and foreigners doing the same jobs.
Last year, workers employed by a recruitment agency had expressed the same grievances when they made public that they worked for, in some cases, $70,000, offshore while the recruitment company was collecting the lion’s share of the monies.
The issue of local content here has been a thorny one as the local business community continues to lament being side lined, and private sector bodies urge swift local content legislation to address the problem.
The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has urged that local content legislation be tabled by the end of this year and Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat this week said that that government is assiduously working towards that timeline.
