THE Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has issued a stern warning to the Mayor and City Councillor of Georgetown, threatening to initiate legal proceedings if street vendors from the hospital’s vicinity are not removed within seven days.
The hospital’s attorney, Sase Gunraj, contended in a letter dated April 30 that the vendors’ presence impedes emergency vehicles’ access to the healthcare facility.

According to Gunraj, the issue surfaced when GPHC noted an increase in the number of vendors encroaching in the hospital’s vicinity, making it difficult for ambulances and emergency services to navigate the area effectively.
Despite repeated requests to the City Council to prohibit vending in critical zones around medical facilities, he said there has been no action taken to address these concerns.

Several streets, particularly East Street, New Market Street and Middle Street, he said, have been encumbered by numerous stationary and itinerant vendors who sell a variety of items from a range of makeshift stalls, immobile vehicles and caravans and push carts.

In the missive, counsel emphasised the “absolute need” for free and unimpeded access to the medical institution by vehicular traffic at all times during the day and night.
“This is to ensure that motor vehicular traffic, including but not limited to emergency vehicles, can traverse these roadways without hindrance. Moreover, the importance of unobstructed pathways to facilitate pedestrians to a hospital cannot be overstated,” Gunraj said.

He said that the hospital, of its own volition, has made strident efforts to remedy this situation, to no avail. The lawyer added that it was apposite to note that recent decisions of the High Court have reiterated the statutory duty which devolves upon the City Council to remedy the situation.

The GPHC has made it clear that it was been advised of the plethora of legal options available to it and is prepared to institute legal proceedings in the unlikely event of the Council’s failure to comply with its demands, particularly in light of the strict posture adopted by the courts under similar circumstances.

Concerns about the vending issue have been voiced by hospital officials on several occasions. The City Council, in December 2022, had tried to regulate the area by evicting every vendor. But there has not been regular enforcement, and many vendors either returned or found new nearby locations from which to operate.