— notes investigators will examine allegations against GPHC matron

By Shauna Jemmott
WHILE it is now official that Director of Nursing Services (Matron) at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Sister Collene Hicks has been sent on administrative leave, Board Chairman Dr Carl “Max” Hanoman has assured the Guyana Nurses Association that victimisation is not a part of this approach.Dr Hanoman in an invited comment told the Guyana Chronicle that the matron was on Friday handed a letter informing her that she was being sent on administrative leave.

He said the decision to send Hicks on leave was made by GPHC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Alan Johnson, who had recommended the decision at a recent meeting with the hospital’s Board of Directors (BODs).
On Friday, the Guyana Nurses Association (GNA) in a press statement expressed dissatisfaction with the decision to send the matron on leave, stating there was no evidence to support the allegations levelled against her.
At a press conference Thursday, Dr Hanoman announced that Johnson recommended that the matron be sent on administrative leave, while a petition signed by 150 staff nurses and doctors recommended that her services be terminated.
The matron has been accused of not providing enough nurses to support the delivery of healthcare in the various departments and shifting the nurses around the various departments of the hospital, thus obstructing the smooth flow of service delivery.
Complaints of unprofessionalism in service delivery and neglect have also surfaced at the institution, and Dr Hanoman said the institution’s CEO reported that although he had written the matron on several occasions, she refused to follow instructions.
“The CEO wrote her more than once and she did not follow instructions,” Dr Hanoman said Thursday.
The Chairman described the decision as “fair” and gave the assurance that no one will be victimised in the process.
“I thought it was a fair decision, and I think the Nurses Association understands that.”
He explained that the leave is only to facilitate an investigation into the allegations and a move is being made to “set up an investigative body and that body will have to report to the hospital on the findings.”
He said the CEO has assured the Board of Directors that he had enough evidence to support his decision and some 150 staff nurses and doctors had signed a petition recommending the dismissal of the matron.
“We’re not victimising anybody. I’m not taking up sides… It’s just to facilitate an investigation,” Dr Hanoman told the Guyana Chronicle.
He said the BoDs is interested in conducting investigations into the entire system to find out what are the “failures and faults of the system and try to correct the system” but as the process begins, “people are being drastic and hard.”
“We’re interested in patient care and if that care is compromised in any way, we have to intervene,” Dr Hanoman stated, and added that all systems and departments must be in order so that the hospital can have good patient relations.
IT WILL SHOCK THE NATION
The Nurses Association in the statement Friday had also accused doctors at the institution of mis-diagnosing patients, resulting in further complications. Further, they accused doctors of causing longer periods of hospitalisation and deaths of patients due to incorrect diagnoses and poor management of patients at the country’s main health institution. They said the nation would be in shock if investigations should be launched at departments outside the hospital’s Maternity Unit.
“If deaths in other departments are investigated like those in the Maternity Unit, it will shock the nation as wrong diagnosis and poor management contribute to an alarming number of deaths and nurses are aware…” the GNA said.