HEALTH Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsaran yesterday dispatched to the West Demerara Regional Hospital complex (WDRH) a high-level team comprising the Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry, Mr. Leslie Cadogan;

Deputy Permanent Secretary Mr. Trevor Thomas; Technical Officer to the PS, Ms. Rayon Shury; Mr. Kumar Ramotar, and Inter-Ministerial Sectoral Coordinator Mr. Seewchan, mainly to meet the senior officials there, but equally to extend condolences to the family of the late Shemar Raymond Miggins.
The permanent secretary-led team met officials of the West Demarara Regional Hospital (WDRH) during a brief meeting held to review the incident involving Miggins’s death, and several related issues were ventilated, for which recommendations were made aimed at improving the services and image of the health complex.
Permanent Secretary Mr Cadogan, in interacting with the regional officials, elicited the necessary information regarding the incident, and made mention of the steps to be taken to restore public confidence in the staff and others directly involved in the incident, as per recommendations made.
The team met family members of the late Shemar Raymond Miggins at the Ezekiel Funeral Home while the post-mortem was being performed on the late teenager’s body, and Mr. Cadogan extended, on behalf of the Minister of Health and officials and staff of the West Demerara Regional Hospital, condolences to them.
He informed the family that the Ministry of Health had commenced an investigation, the findings of which would be handed over to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, as soon as they become available.
Moreover, he said the Health Ministry would be looking at avenues to assist the family where necessary, and would seek the support of the Ministry of Human Services in this regard.
Miggins succumbed under controversial circumstances on Saturday afternoon at the West Demerara Regional Hospital, sparking a harsh exchange of words between the family members present and hospital staff. Out of an abundance of caution, the Health Ministry had summoned the police to restore order, since a large crowd of curious persons had gathered when the heated exchanges erupted between the two parties.
Medical Superintendent at the West Demerara Regional Hospital, Dr. Bridgemohan, confirmed that investigations were well advanced and that the findings would be presented in a report to the Minister of Health.
Family members had been present at the post-mortem examination (PME) performed by Government Pathologist Dr. Vivekananda Bridjmohan, and the Guyana Chronicle has been reliably informed that Dr Walcott, another Pathologist attached to the Region Three Health Sector for over a decade, had also witnessed the PME.