THE Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) wishes to respond to the article published in the Friday, January 22, 2010 edition of the Kaieteur News, which was captioned: “Patient claims ‘calling the media’ prompts premature discharge.” The article stated that a “patient [of the hospital] who gave his name as Rabindra Rooplall is accusing the hospital administration of prematurely discharging him for ‘calling in the media’.” The article quoted statements allegedly made by Mr. Rooplall which suggested that the hospital discriminated against him because of him expressing his freedom of speech.
The management of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation categorically rejects these accusations. It also condemns the haste with which the Kaieteur News rushed to publish these unsubstantiated allegations without first awaiting the comments of the hospital. This is despite the fact that one Dale Andrews had contacted the Chief Executive Office by telephone at his home at around 17.00 hours on Thursday January 21, 2010. The Chief Executive Office specifically indicated to Mr. Andrews that he does not have the facts of the matter on hand and asked that the said reporter give him until 11.00 hours the next day to investigate and prepare a response.
Despite these assurances, Kaieteur News went ahead and published what has now turned out to be a highly erroneous report on the matter without awaiting the promised response of the hospital. We now wish to correct the falsehoods contained in the said article.
Our investigations have revealed that the person who represented himself to the Kaieteur News as Mr. Rabindra Rooplall was admitted to our institution under the name Mr. Ravi Ghani Jnr., with a medical condition and was hospitalized for forty three days. He absconded on the night of December 23, 2009 and was brought back the next day. During his stay at the GPHC, he received psychiatric evaluation and was treated by Dr. Bhiro Harry and another senior consultant. He was discharged on 20th January, 2010.
The management of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation wishes to make it emphatically clear that as a medical institution, we admit persons who are sick and in need of hospitalization, and discharges them when it is deemed fit to do so. The patient was discharged by qualified medical authorities and not by a social worker as was erroneously stated in the article. We are a hospital and not a nursing home, hostel or hospice. In cases such as Mr. Rooplall/ Ghani Jnr., patients are sent to government institutions to avoid problems of overcrowding (doubling of patients on beds) as was so opportunely published in the Kaieteur News article.
The management of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation wishes to once again appeal to media houses to first allow the hospital the opportunity to respond to allegations leveled against the service we provide.