Senior doctors back on the job

The Medical Professionals Association of TT (MPATT) said senior doctors — consultants/registrars — resumed overtime duties from yesterday. This development occurred after the Health Ministry met yesterday’s 3 pm deadline set by doctors to receive a letter outlining the assurances given by Health Minister John Rahael at a meeting with their representatives on Saturday. While the doctors had asked for Rahael to respond to them in writing, Permanent Secretary with responsibility for the Regional Health Authorities (RHAs), Reynold Cooper, was left with the task since Rahael  was not in office at the time the doctors sent correspondence with their ultimatum. Speaking with Newsday after receiving the ministry’s letter, MPATT president Dr Lakhan Roop said he hoped for a speedy resolution to the negotiations which have been held sporadically since March 12 last year.

The doctors got the ministry to agree to make changes in the Joint Negotiating Team (JNT) of Regional Health Authorities. Newsday learnt that Cooper will replace Imtiaz Ahamad as chairman of the “rejuvenated” JNT. The first meeting of the JNT and the doctors will take place on Friday at 1.30 pm. A venue has not been confirmed. Although the doctors asked for representatives of the Chief Personnel Officer and Public Sector Negotiating Committee to be part of the JNT, a source said the Health Ministry could not give a commitment for officials who were not under its authority. Before the ministry agreed to their request, the doctors met at the San Fernando General Hospital yesterday and vowed to desist from overtime work.

Speaking to the media yesterday Roop, said: “Minister Rahael should give in writing his assurance of strengthening the JNT, including some of the individuals that we have asked to be incorporated and a commitment that the negotiations will commence within a short space of time.” Senior consultants have refused to work overtime, weekends and public holidays, and this has resulted in critically ill patients being sent to private nursing homes. Yesterday, the situation was not as bad, hospital sources said, as  over the weekend, when scores of sick people were left unattended in the Accident and Emergency Department. Asked about their concerns regarding patients being sent back from wards to the Accident and Emergency Department because there were no senior doctors after 4 pm, Roop said: “If consultants and registrars are absent, the patients should have been sent to other health institutions and not admitted.  This clearly shows why the services of the registrars and the consultants are important.”