Health Ministry writes St Kitts University

THE Ministry of Health yesterday wrote the Windsor University School of Medicine in St Kitts, seeking clarification of the school’s purported claim that it received permission from the Ministry to send students to the San Fernando General Hospital for clinical training.

Faxed yesterday, the letter, which was addressed to president of Windsor University — Dr Srinivas Gaddam — stated that the Health Ministry perused all documents relating the school’s correspondence to the ministry in 2000. However, Ministry officials could find no document, the ministry’s letter stated, in which permission was granted. Yesterday’s initiative by the ministry follows its closure of the teaching programme last week, which was being conducted at the SFGH, on the ground that permission was not granted for a local team of doctors to teach the Windsor students. In a confidential report following an investigation conducted by Principal Medical Officer Dr Rampersad Parasram, the ministry took issue with the payment of US$100 by each student to the doctors who had been training them at SFGH.

Windsor, in a media release faxed from St Kitts yesterday, sought to play down the issue of whether or not the school had been granted permission from the Health Ministry. Gaddam, in the release stated, “The university is seeking to formalise all paperwork with appropriate Government authorities. The university wishes to have a long-term academic relationship in the field of medical education and an exchange programme with the institutions and hospitals in Trinidad.” On the issue of the payment of money to local doctors who were tutors for its students, the Windsor statement added, “It is the general policy of the school to allocate certain grants to coordinators from time to time.”