Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 10, 2010 News
A maid attached to the National Psychiatric Hospital in Fort Canje had to be rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital on Tuesday last after she was cuffed in the face by a patient of institution.
The maid, June Sheppard, 54, of Stanleytown was doing her usual chores in the hospital’s compound when she was confronted by the patient, Rickford Charles, who without warning, punched her to the face, flooring her in the process. The woman had to be rescued by other staff members who rushed her to the New Amsterdam Hospital, bleeding from the nose and with a swollen face and eye.
She received treatment and is presently on sick leave.
Meanwhile, workers attached to the mental institution have renewed their call for the implementation of risk allowances as their lives are always at risk working among the mentally unstable patients.
The matter at the moment is engaging the attention of the Guyana Public Service Union and workers are threatening to take matters into their own hands, since no one seems to be listening to their cries.
The workers had held an almost one week protest last year when a patient went berserk and killed another inmate while injuring four others.
The workers then had met with the two Ministers attached to the Ministry of Health, who had promised to take immediate action to remedy the situation and improve their working conditions.
The GPSU on that occasion had threatened to shut the institution down, unless their demands were met.
Among some of the contentious issues then and now are; staff shortage, the security situation and proper lighting, and an increase in risk allowance from the inadequate $ 500 to about $5000 a month. Maids and other ancillary staff do not get risk allowance.
The Union had also questioned why the authorities are still transferring nurses from the National Psychiatric Hospital to the Public Hospital if there is a staff shortage at the mental institution, and had called for the workers to be returned immediately.
The patient staff ratio at the institution is about 28 patients to one nurse although it should be 0-1.
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