United States-headquartered remote medical services provider, RemoteMD, says all 21 of its staffers here are Guyanese and it dismissed claims that its doctors are not well paid.
The company was responding to a letter and news item in Stabroek News which had stated that local doctors are being paid approximately US$2,500 per month. The company said that it pays “about five times” the US$2,500 per month figure stated by a person knowledgeable of the company’s operations and that it will continue to champion local content. It would mean that the average income per month for a local doctor, according to RemoteMD, is US$12,500.
A local RemoteMD doctor, speaking to Stabroek News yesterday on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper that a contract was signed for US$6,000 per month gross, payable in Guyana dollars. The doctor says that the take home salary is about $800,000 per month. For doctors working offshore, according to the source, there is a rotation of 28 days on and 28 days off.
Another doctor who has worked for the company told this newspaper yesterday that their salary was indeed US$2,500 per month and RemoteMD should make public not only amounts paid to local doctors but charges to ExxonMobil which would be deducted from oil revenues as cost oil.
“We respect our employees’ privacy and will not divulge salaries, but on average, they are well compensated by about five times what you reported,” RemoteMD CEO Kathryn Steele told Stabroek News by phone from Louisiana.
In response to the claim in the letter that RemoteMD bills at U.S. medical rates leading to bills above US$9,000 per patient per visit, Steele said “Service prices can be verified in our clinic in Georgetown, clarifying the gross misstatement of patient visit”.
Last week, Stabroek News reported that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had notified that Shondell Reid, RemoteMD Services Guyana Inc. had applied for the establishment of a medical laboratory and that the project had been exempted from having to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
While the EPA’s notice said that the company has applied for permission to set up a laboratory, Steele clarified that the notice was wrong and that the company had instead applied to set up a clinic.
“RemoteMD has not opened a lab, nor have we applied to open one. The only certification for which we have applied is the license for our new Clinic. Through this Clinic, we spend many thousands of dollars with locally owned labs and employ only Guyanese citizens in every position,” she said.
Steele took umbrage that her company’s name would be mentioned in an article citing local content concerns.
“We conduct 100% of our operations with Guyanese-owned businesses, and 100% of our employees are Guyanese citizens and have been since our initial arrival into Guyana. As our business continues to grow, so will our investment in Guyana’s economy and labor force because we are proud to do business that way. That was our commitment from Day 1, and we have never wavered. We are excited to be playing a role in the growth and development of Guyana and have much to contribute by providing a previously unavailable level of education, training, and career opportunities to its citizens,” she said.
“To date, RemoteMD has 21 employees in Guyana – all of which are Guyanese citizens. We have invested heavily in every one of these doctors, nurses, and staff to ensure they earn the necessary certifications and additional highly specialized education and training, so they are qualified and capable of providing superior healthcare on and offshore,” she added.
The RemoteMD CEO, who informed that her company has worked with ExxonMobil and its prime contractors in other countries around the world, said that the oil & gas industry has long set the highest standard of health and safety of any industry in the world, which is why “we train our doctors and nurses to adhere to those exacting standards and go above”.
“And not just to serve Oil & Gas, but also construction, mining, and all the other support industries investing in Guyana’s future,” she continued.
Steele said that RemoteMD is and will continue to be a huge asset “to the beautiful county of Guyana by continuing to educate and train Guyanese citizens to provide the Occupational and Industrial medical care required to keep all its industries performing at the pace of growth occurring now and projected for the future.”
