Latest update December 6th, 2024 4:51 AM
Sep 16, 2015 News
Less than a week after Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) was sent off on administrative leave to allow for a forensic audit of the hospital’s procurement bond, the Director of Nursing Services (Matron), who he had months earlier terminated, was reinstated.
According to a statement issued by the hospital last week, the hospital’s CEO, Mr. Michael Khan, was sent off on administrative leave. The leave became effective last week Wednesday (September 9, 2015).
Minister of Health, Dr. George Norton, had informed that “generally if we are doing an investigation, if who we are investigating might be considered to be impeding the investigation, we generally would send them on leave.”
Acting in the capacity of CEO is Mr. Alan Johnson who formerly headed the New Amsterdam Hospital.
However, things reportedly got even more interesting at the GPHC on Monday. This publication was reliably informed that a letter was issued to the terminated Director of Nursing Services, Sister Collene Hicks, to resume normal duties.
Hicks was appointed to the position of Director of Nursing Services on March 16, 2015 but was terminated on June 15, 2015 when her probation period would have matured.
Khan had premised his termination decision on “gross insubordination” on the part of Hicks. The decision had however sparked outrage among some nursing staff who initially engaged protest action to retaliate the decision.
Despite a move by Khan to circulate a memo of the termination decision, Hicks refused to acknowledge the letter of termination that was presented to her, and based on the advice of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), which had vowed to represent her, had remained on the job.
Reports are that Hicks was able to retain the support of some nurses since she was issued with the letter of termination, a state of affairs that resulted in a breakdown of the delivery of nursing services at the hospital, this publication was told.
In an attempt to officially put an end to the controversial situation, a few weeks ago the locks of the door of the Director of Nursing Services office were changed.
This publication was informed that a decision was taken at the level of the hospital’s administration to change the locks on the door of the Director of Nursing Services.
Hicks’s continued inability to access the office saw her informing officials of the GPSU who turned up at the public hospital to launch an investigation last month into the development.
The CEO of the hospital was unreachable then, but according to GPSU’s Senior Industrial Relations Officer, Dennis English, the way forward in addressing such situations is to “follow guiding principles and procedures and we have done that…We have made significant representation and definitely we are not happy that the matter is still not resolved.”
English had disclosed, too, that since the hospital CEO opted to not respond to a letter from the Union to rescind the termination decision, the GPSU had taken its concerns to higher authority. He was making reference to a meeting between the GSPU and President David Granger where the matter was raised and a decision was taken for Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, to look into the matter.
“It was public knowledge that we have gone beyond the CEO… We have written to the CEO who has shown little or no regard by not responding to our correspondence,” said English who lamented the ‘lock changing’ development.
“The locking of the door to the Matron’s office has put a whole other spin to the matter and because of that, among other things, we are here….” English had stated.
“All along she has been reporting for duty…so definitely we have to address this and as we speak, we have already made representation in that regard,” English assured, as he expressed hope that “good sense will prevail.”
Hicks, despite being locked out of the office, continued to report for duty each day but instead, started utilizing a secretarial desk just outside the Director of Nursing Services office.
While this publication was able to confirm that Hicks at the start of this week was furnished with a letter advising her that she should return to duty, it was not clear who authorized the decision.
This publication was however reliably informed that “the decision came from the top.”
When contacted yesterday, officials of both the GPSU and the GPHC were tight-lipped on the issue and calls to Hicks went unanswered.
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