NOTWITHSTANDING the social media frenzy earlier this year with detailed allegations against the Balwant Singh Hospital, just two persons stood by their complaints and made official reports to the Medical Council of Guyana.

The investigations into those complaints are expected to conclude by the end of this month. In a statement on Wednesday, the hospital denied knowledge of the investigation. “We have not been advised that that the CMO has received formal complaints and we have not been contacted for an investigation. Your questions comes as news to us,” reported Alex Graham, Public Relations representative for the hospital.

“When the accusations were appearing all over social media I personally asked the CMO to make a public announcement about the procedures for making complaints of this nature, as a general public service, and in the interest of any patients who feel genuinely aggrieved. Also, formal complaints and the investigations that they trigger would help hospitals to improve, all hospitals. I never saw the announcement.”

Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, on Tuesday, said that the investigation into the allegations has not yet concluded. He said the investigation is being handled by the Ministry of Public Health. “A team was put together by the Ministry of [Public] Health from the Inspectorate of the MoPH, because some of the issues raised in the complaints were related not to the practice of medicine, but to some other issues regarding the functions of the facilities. So those were the areas in the Terms of Reference for the committee to look at. They are currently still conducting that work, I won’t be able to say until they present the report what the next steps will be,” Persaud said in an interview last Tuesday.
“I think the final report, with the recommendations, will be in by the end of this month. They had some steps that they had to go through.”

Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, in an earlier interview, had noted that despite the many reports advertised, to her knowledge only two persons had come forward to make official reports, and these were being thoroughly investigated. Persaud reminded that the authorities can only investigate official reports that are made.

“If you are firm about an issue, I think it is prudent for you to come forward. You help not just your situation, but you help many others in the process. Thorough investigations will be done once those necessary steps are taken,” Persaud noted.

“Making allegations and being concrete about complaints is a distinguishing fact here for us in Guyana. The authorities can only respond when there is a credible report. Of course we do take all reports seriously, Minister Lawrence herself ask that we look at them carefully, that we are observing all the legal and required technical standards, so we are in the process of doing that.”

Persaud urged persons with any grievances against medical institutions to speak out.
“If any facility, both public and private, I keep saying this, if you are dissatisfied, or have questions about how those services are delivered we would really like to encourage members of the public to come forward and make those reports. If you are firm about an issue, I think it is prudent for you to come forward. You help not just your situation, but you help many others in the process. Thorough investigations will be done once those necessary steps are taken,” Persaud promised.

It was last June that several, mostly anonymous, stories, shared primarily by social activist Melissa Atwell, gained attention on social media site – Facebook – detailing allegations against the Dr. Balwant Singh Hospital, and one of the hospital’s doctors. Many of the posts against the hospital were allegedly from women, some claiming to have been former employees of the institution. Atwell had posted over 30 different stories, from what she said were private messages sent to her. The hospital immediately denied the claims, and questioned the authenticity of the reports given their anonymity.

Atwell was later charged with “defamatory libel” against the Balwant Singh Hospital, while the hospital later took her to court suing for $10M. Those cases are still ongoing.
Joan Nurse is among the few who was willing to come forward and stand by her story, ensuring her complaint was made official. She is also working on a lawsuit against the hospital, which she blames for the death of her baby on June 1, after she gave birth at the hospital.  She claimed her child died because she was advised by the doctor to induce labour when she was just 37 weeks pregnant.

Nurse does not feel that enough is being done to reassure those who did make reports, given that the issue has been and ongoing one since June
“Nobody never call, nobody never checkup, nothing concerning it. It’s very disappointing. I need them to investigate and get to the bottom of it so I can know exactly what they did wrong at the hospital,” Nurse says. She questions if the current situation is what may have deterred others from making official reports. “Maybe they had their own reasons not to make the reports. Maybe they know when you make the reports nothing would be done about it. So it’s just you wasting yuh time, it’s just like things could happen to you and nobody really cares,” Nurse expressed. Nurse’s lawyer, Sanjeev Datadin, confirmed that a lawsuit has been filed against the hospital on Nurse’s behalf and is expected to be served shortly.