A report was circulating last week that travellers from Canada were being stopped at Piarco Airport and quarantined as a precaution against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), but this was dismissed by the Airports Authority yesterday.

Deputy General Manager, Airport Operations Eric Pierre said no passenger has been quarantined by the AA.  However, he said aircraft will be quarantined if there is any passenger showing symptoms of the disease. He said the Country Medical Officer of Health (St George West) Dr Kumar met with officials of the Airports Authority on April 3 about SARS. Outlining the procedure which will be followed, he said flight crews will make contact with the AA’s Port Health  personnel, who have contact numbers for  doctors. Pierre said arrangements are in place for the Emergency Health Service to transport people to the hospital. “No one will get off the plane until the medical people arrange the relevant transport.” 

The Ministry of Health will provide AA with cards which will be distributed to passengers from countries with SARS outbreaks. They will be required to provide information on their flight number and date of arrival. “People will sign them prior to reaching Immigration and in the event someone has symptoms we will be able to contact other flight passengers.” Meanwhile local airline BWIA is on the lookout for any SARS cases as it was detected on some of its flight routes —Toronto, New York and Miami.

Staff on flights will be vigilant for anyone showing symptoms of the disease. They have been equipped with masks and gloves to use and to provide persons who may have SARS. Corporate Communications Manager of BWIA Clint Williams said the airline has been in contact with the World Health Organisation and International AirTransport Association about “acceptable standards” in the airline’s response to the disease. He said in Toronto there is a large Asian presence and also significant business travel through Asia. This is one port on which the airline is being “particularly careful.”

THE San Fernando General Hospital could soon witness a catastrophe because many patients on medical and surgical wards have not been attended to by a doctor for over a week.

Calling on the Ministry of Health to intervene, Ag Hospital Medical Chief of Staff Dr Anand Chatoorgoon, yesterday said too many doctors were calling in sick. He called on the Ministry to accede to the doctors’ request, or take legal action to bring an end to the doctors calling in sick at the SFGH. Chatoorgoon warned yesterday that the “blow” would be too severe to deal with if the impasse continues for another week.

Yesterday the Obstetrics and Gynaecology ward where pregnant mothers go to have their babies, came to a virtual standstill. Mothers, Chatoorgoon said, had not been attended to by a doctor for an entire week. All but two doctors had called in sick. The hospital medical director said that the entire team of doctors on ward 11 had reported sick. Chatoorgoon said he was forced to call upon retired specialist medical officer Dr Theo Poon King to take charge of the ward. “Dr Poon King has decided to volunteer his services,” Chatoorgoon said. “But I’m appealing to the Ministry officials that if they cannot accede to the doctors’ demands, then find some means, legal or otherwise, to bring the hospital on track,” Chatoorgoon said.

The doctors met yesterday at the SFGH’s lounge to discuss counter proposals the Medical Professional Association of  Trinidad and Tobago (MPATT) submitted yesterday to the joint negotiating team of the Regional Health Authorities.  MPATT is proposing increments for each year of experience, similar to what their Tobago counterparts receive. They are seeking annual increases in salary as well. Another proposal is that overtime/extra duty be paid at the standard rate of two and a half times the hourly rate.

Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays should be paid at a rate of two and a half times the hourly rate. MPATT’s original proposal to the RHA was that triple time be paid. The situation at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) and Port-of-Spain General Hospital also remains unchanged as doctors continued to be absent. The Adult Priority Care Facility (PCF) has been closed until further notice and the Paediatric PCF was deserted yesterday morning. Chief Executive Officer of the North West Regional Health Authority Dr Lennard Jaggessar was unable to say how many doctors were working as Medical Chiefs of Staff are yet to provide this information despite numerous requests for a list of absent doctors.

Monthly-paid staff at Caroni (1975) Limited who have accepted Govern-ment’s VSEP packages will soon begin receiving letters of acceptance from the Company.

In an interview yesterday, Ag CEO, Chandra Bobart, said the letters were being prepared for distribution, with most employees scheduled to receive their letters by Monday. He said 98 percent of the company’s monthly-paid staff had accepted the VSEP packages. Bobart also disclosed that Cabinet had approved funding to cover the shortfall in the Company’s operating expenses until the end of the month.”He said the finances would be used to pay salaries for daily-paid workers, canefarmers, and contractors, as well as to meet other operating expenses, including the payment of utility bills. Bobart also gave the assurance that milling operations at the Usine Ste Madeleine factory had returned to normal after experiencing a disruption in the electricity supply over the past week.

Two teenage boys charged with stealing over $7,000 worth of items mostly in liquor, yesterday appeared before Magistrate Marcia Murray in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Magistrates’ Court.

Rishi Samaroo, 18, and Christopher Mohammed, 18, both of Bhim Bhim Trace, El Socorro, San Juan, pleaded not guilty to stealing a quantity of items from Master’s Restaurant and Bar at El Socorro Road, on Tuesday. The items included 30 packets of preserved red mango, 50 disposable cigarette lighters, 11 boxes of Winterfresh gum, bottles of Hennessy brandy, Fernandez Vat 19 Rum, Braemer Scotch whisky, and Old Oak White Rum. The items were found in a white crocus bag and a black knapsack. The teens were charged by PC Mohammed of the Barataria Police Station. They were represented by attorney Cecil Pope. Samaroo and Mohammed were placed on bail with a surety each of $20,000. They are to reappear in court on April 25.

Superintendent of Police Stephen Quashie recalled yesterday in the Port-of-Spain Third Cri-minal Court  how State witness Clint Huggins ran away from soldiers as-signed to protect him and sometime later met his death by assassins.

Under cross-examination from attorney Keith Scotland, Quashie recalled that it was Carnival Saturday night — 1996, and Clint wanted to party some more, but his security detail, comprising soldiers of the Defence Force,  had  persuaded him it was time to leave the PSA fete at Long Circular, St James.

A reluctant Clint, boarded an army vehicle with his “bodyguards” and was being taken back to his safe house at Teteron Barracks. When the vehicle stopped at a traffic light in St James, Clint jumped out the vehicle, ran and boarded a maxi taxi heading to Port-of-Spain. The soldiers  ran after Clint but before they could have reached him he had already boarded the maxi. Arnold Huggins, his cousin Leslie Huggins and friend Junior “Head” Phillip, are charged with the Carnival Tuesday morning February 20, 1996, murder of Clint. Prosecutors in the matter are Wayne Rajbansie and Natsha George while Phillip is being defended by Osbourne Charles SC and Christilyn Moor, Leslie by Scotland and Dawn Mohan and Arnold by Ian Stuart Brook.

Quashie said he had contacted a Major in the Army and had made arrangements for statements to be taken from the soldiers who were escorting Clint back to Teteron, but nobody showed and no statement was given. Prior to questioning Quashie on this issue, Scotland wanted to know why Quashie did not attempt to retrieve jeans belonging to the accused that were allegedly dumped into Leslie’s Mulchan Trace, Guaico home latrine, after the killing of Clint.

Quashie explained that such information had only come to his attention three years later, in 1999. A time span of about three years, during which time the latrine was in use, and by then the jeans would have been of no use to him. He said: “I did not want to  mess with that.” Scotland: “Oh you don’t want to mess with that.” Justice Soo-Hon: “Mr Scotland, I don’t know why you are dwelling on that issue.”

Scotland insisted that he wanted to know why Quashie did not search the latrine for the clothes. Justice Soo-Hon: “ Well, if you think it’s necessary, stay in the latrine as long as you would like to stay there.” His answer had the entire Court in laughter.  When hearing resumes on Monday, Scotland will continue his cross-examination.

HIGH COURT Judge Justice Pamela Elder yesterday told a Penal man that she hoped he would learn the saying, “Love your neighbour” over the next six years which he will spend in jail for chopping his neighbour with a cutlass.

Justice Elder told Deochan Ramanth that he she was sending him to jail so that he could be purged of his violent inclination. Ramnath, also called Sagram Ramnath, was found guilty on Thursday by a jury in the San Fernando Third Criminal Assizes for chopping Mary Mollineau five times about her body on October 17, 2000.

Mollineau, a mother of eight, lived in front of Ramanth’s house at Penal Rock Road, and the neighbours had not been on speaking terms for several years. Yesterday, Justice Elder scolded Ramnath for his violent acts toward a woman: “You should know that a woman’s body is to be caressed, not chopped. Violence against women is a dispicable act. “What you did was inhumane. You acted like a wild animal. You should know that wild animals are kept in cages, so too when a man sinks to the level of an animal he has to be caged.”

Ramnath was on trial for the charge of attempted murder, but after two hours of deliberation the jury found him guilty of causing grievous bodily harm. The jury rejected Ramnath’s defence that he was innocent of the crime, and that it was his common-law wife, Fareeda Ramnath Khan, who had chopped Mollineau. The case against Ramnath, was that he armed himself with a gilpin and a swiper, and chopped Mollineau on the head and back. The State’s case was led by attorney Didanath Ramkissoon. Ramnath was defended by Frank Seepersad.

A POLICEMAN was accused yesterday of laying a charge against a Rio Claro man because the man’s wife had rejected his sexual advances.

The accusation was made against Constable Wayne Doodhai when he was giving evidence against Mahabir Seepersad and Kello Mohammed, who are on trial for marijuana cultivation. The accused, Seepersad, 38, is an employee of the Ministry of Health, of Clear Water Village, Rio Claro, while Mohammed, 42, is from Kildeer Trace, Rio Claro. They are on trial in the San Fernando Third Criminal Assizes before Justice Pamela Elder and a nine-member jury.  

The State’s case against Seepersad and Mohammed is that on May 2, 1999, they were observed by a party of policemen in the Rio Claro forest tending to the illegal plants. Doodhai testified that he stood behind a tree and observed the accused, whom he had known previously, for several minutes as they collected water in a bucket from a nearby pond, and watered the marijuana plants. According to the witness, Seepersad was arrested in the marijuana plantation and Mohammed was subsequently arrested on a warrant.

While Doodhai was under cross-examination, Seepersad’s attorney Prakash Ramadhar put it to the witness that Seepersad was not arrested in the forest, but was held while he was fishing in Guayaguayare. Ramadhar alleged that Doodhai used to harrass Seepersad’s wife, Marion Seepersad, also known as Rosie, who worked next door to the old Rio Claro Police Station and who lived next door to a bar at which he (Doodhai) would drink. “I would never harrass that woman, sir, she is not my type,” Doodhai insisted from the witness stand.

Ramadhar told the witness that his client was held at gunpoint and after Seepersad was put in the police jeep, police later brought a bucket with marijuana plants and charged him with the offence at the police station.  Doodhai denied the allegations, maintaining that Seepersad was caught as he tried to escape from the marijuana plantation that he had been cultivating in the forest. The trial continues on Monday.

BWIA’s unions are standing behind Government’s position on the airline, president of the Aviation Communication and Allied Workers Union Christopher Abraham said yesterday.

Junior Finance Minister Ken Valley said on Thursday that BWIA’s management had left out key information in its survival plan submitted Tuesday. Valley said because of that Government does not know the exact state of BWIA’s affairs. BWIA’s management presented the plan to Abraham on Thursday but the union leader said he was not satisfied. “It is another example of dishonesty and deception by the airline,” Abraham said. He added that the unions are also waiting to hear from BWIA’s other major shareholders. Valley said Government would only help the airline if the other major shareholders played their part as well. After a meeting about two weeks ago, Valley and the unions pledged to use their combined 49 percent shareholding to bring about change at the airline.

The five pilots who received their retrenchment letters Wednesday night were part of last year’s fleet rationalisation move, Communi-cations Director Clint Williams said on Thursday.

They were part of 40 pilots who were separated because of the airline’s move to retire its Dash-8s and MD 83s last year. Other pilots have been retrained to operate on the remaining aircraft. BWIA now operates two types of aircraft 737s and one Airbus, a move which is supposed to cut operating and maintenance costs.

The Medical Professionals Association of TT (MPATT) has refuted claims by Chairman of the Joint Regional Health Authority team Imtiaz Ahamed, that consensus was reached on Special Duty Allowances and housing allowances for doctors.

MPATT has also challenged the accuracy of the figures presented in advertisements highlighting  the offer made by the RHAs for House Officers. In a media release yesterday, MPATT Assistant Secretary Dr Lakhan Roop said the advertisement reported that Trinidad House Officers presently receive the total sum of $19,504 per month, but he described it as “totally inaccurate and misleading”.

He said this figure was contradicted in another advertisement which stated that Trinidad House Officers were presently receiving $15,627. This sum represents a 40 hour week with an additional 56 hours monthly. Roop said Tobago House Officers in 2001 received $22,612 monthly within the first year of employment, which “is more than the total package of a Specialist Medical Officer/Consultant in Trinidad”. Tobago doctors receive an Incentive Allowance to compensate for differences in cost of living. They also received an increment of $300 for each year of experience from $8,000 for the first year to $9,200 for the fifth year of experience.

While the advertisement said the RHAs offered Trinidad House Officers a package of $22,053 monthly, Roop said this was never on the negotiating table. He said at last Monday’s meeting Ahamad, said “they were not offering the package as advertised”. For 2003, doctors are seeking a total package of $20,106 (Year 1 House Officers) $20,600 (Year 2), $21,094 (Year 3) and $21,588 (Year 4). For the period 2004 MPATT is seeking a package toalling $20,600 (Year 1), $21,094 (Year 2), $21,588 (Year 3) and $22,082 (Year 4). For 2005, $21,094 (Year 1), $21,588 (Year 2), $22,082 (Year 3) and $22,576 (Year 4).

For the period 2003-2005 the RHAs are offering, until September, $17,962 and from December $16,762, and compensation packages totalling $16,762 (2004), $17,223 (2005). MPATT has also rebutted statements made by Chief Executive Officer of the South West Regional Health Authority, Vade Mohammed. Roop said at no time was an offer made by the RHAs which exceeded $22,612 per month, although Mohammed said Trinidad House Officers were being offered more than their Tobago colleagues. He said the RHA offer peaked in 2003 and subsequently decreased in 2004 and 2005. He said it is false to say MPATT is changing their negotiating stance. “The RHAs wanted to choose sections of the Tobago contracts and then offer the 2001 figures in 2003, without adjustments for inflation and other economic parameters for the ensuing two years. MPATT thus objected.”

The doctors are seeking Overtime/Extra Duty to be paid at double time for the first seven sessions of eight hours. The RHA is offering a rate of 1.66 times. Doctors want the rate on weekends and Public Holidays to be at a rate of 2.5 times the hourly rate but the RHAs said these days are considered equal and equivalent to a normal week day. Roop said the RHAs’ offer reduces Communication Allowance from $350 monthly to $250 and Continued Medical Allowance will be stopped after September 2003.