Health Minister makes a mockery of Guyana Medical Council – GHRA

Apr 29, 2010 News

The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has accused Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy of effectively depriving the Guyana Medical Council of its capacity to enforce professional standards.
The accusation comes in the wake of the Minister accepting the amended recommendation of the Medical Council to censure Police Surgeon Dr. Mahendra Chand for his role in the treatment of a 15-year-old boy who was tortured at the hands of members of the Guyana Police Force last year.
The Medical Council had initially recommended a two-month suspension for Dr. Chand who admitted to several malpractices during his medical examination of the teenager while he was in custody at the Leonora Police Station lock-ups.
The new recommendations came about after the Minister had returned the original recommendations to the Council, requesting further information.
Concerns were earlier expressed that the Health Minister was attempting to usurp the powers of the Medical Council when he refused to accept the initial recommendations.
According to a statement from the GHRA, with complete insensitivity to public, professional and legal sentiment, Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy prevailed in protecting Police Surgeon Mahendra Chand from any meaningful sanction for his passive cooperation in the case of the tortured teenager.
“By securing ‘censure’- the lightest possible sanction – in place of its original recommendation of a two-months suspension, the Minister has effectively deprived the Guyana Medical Council of the capacity to enforce professional standards,” the GHRA said in a statement following the Minister’s no objection to the new recommended sanction.
The GHRA committee stated that the Minister, throughout the case, has shown scant regard for public indignation, professional standards, or the victim.
Rather than stick to his peripheral statutory role, the Minister made himself a central figure in this matter, the GHRA said, adding that the Medical Practitioners Act does not presume the Minister even to be a medical practitioner, nor have him pretend to be one.
Moreover, the GHRA stated that under the Act, the medical profession regulates itself, noting that the Minister’s role is limited to approving decisions the Council takes.
The Act (Section19) specifically provides for recourse to a High Court judge by any person aggrieved by a decision of the Council with respect to suspension.
Such judicial oversight renders the Minister’s interference even more unnecessary, the GHRA said.
Over the months of his prevarications, according to the local human rights body, the Minister has referred several times to not wanting a decision which could be taken to court.
The Minister in his statement accepting the new recommendation said: “I believe the Council has established the protocol that would reduce the chances of success when those who the Council have censured and suspended in the past approached the courts to reverse the Council’s action.” The GHRA interprets this to mean: “I have forced the Medical Council into (From page 9)
accepting the formula that its penalties must be so trivial no one would ever bother to legally challenge them.”
The human rights body described the minister’s position as distasteful and misplaced.
“Having got the decision he wanted, the Minister is effectively depriving the Medical Council of the power of suspension for malpractice. A slap on the wrist for passive collusion with torturing minors virtually ensures every attempt at suspension for lesser malpractice would be challenged legally, thereby making a nonsense of the Minister’s stated aim,” the GHRA said.
“His actions are in danger of creating two precedents: the Minister of Health now has a role in determining professional misconduct; and secondly, the Minister will be, in effect, the only person who can remove unethical or unprofessional physicians,” the GHRA added.