Ministry to deal with private practice during sick leave

WITH YET another sickout by doctors ending at the nation’s hospitals, the Ministry of Health has vowed to deal decisively with two issues — sick leave and private practice.

Health Minister Colm Imbert told Newsday yesterday that the Ministry planned to institute the necessary checks and balances to monitor doctors who report sick at public hospitals, but undertake private work. Imbert said that situation, which he viewed as a serious conflict, emerged during the month-long crisis.  “Not that the Ministry is initiating this, but it surfaced during the impasse when one considers the volume of sick leave and its regularity. The same doctors seem working at the private nursing homes,” Imbert said. Imbert said the situation raised serious questions of ethics. There were three sickout by doctors within nine months.

The ministry failed to get the names of “sick” doctors who were absent from the hospital wards but who were attending to patients at private nursing homes. “The public in this impasse cannot forgive the doctors  after three separate sickouts in just below a year. They suffered at the hands of doctors claiming they (doctors) were sick but were seen attending to private practice,” Imbert said. The Minister said he was pleased health care at hospitals had returned to normal. He added that much of the Ministry’s resources had been stretched during the impasse. Imbert said the Ministry was now back on track in pursuing its various health sector programmes.