Sick treatment of HIV ‘patient’

THE CHARGE levelled by Prof Courtenay Bartholomew that certain private doctors are mistreating patients for HIV/AIDS is an alarming one and we expect that both the TT Medical Board and Medical Association - organisations responsisble for maintaining professional standards - will be propelled to act upon it. We find it unbelievable, in fact, that Prof Bartholomew, Director of the Medical Research Foundation, had actually written to these two bodies and to the Minister of Health informing them about this kind of malpractice as far back as November 1998 and absolutely nothing was ever done about it. Prof Bartholomew’s accusations point to a scandalous situation in private medical practice where patients are being callously exploited because of their fear and anxiety over this dreaded disease. There are some doctors, he claims, who “dare to treat patients with HIV/AIDS” although these practitioners have no knowledge or training in the field. He refers to a couple of doctors “who have been treating HIV/AIDS patients not with the necessary triple therapy, but with two-drug therapy and even monotherapy.”

But worst of all, Prof Bartholomew cites “instances of patients who have been misdiagnosed and have been treated by pseudo-specialists in the field of HIV/AIDS” although these patients were definitely HIV-negative. In other words, they did not have the virus! The MRF Director had expressed these concerns when he spoke at the official launch of the Health Ministry’s HIV/AIDS Health Sector Plan on Tuesday September 14. He was clearly speaking from personal experience since, we understand, several of these persons eventually came with their problems and their complaints to the Foundation which is the major State-sponsored institution for the treatment and care of AIDS patients. It seems quite ironical that Dr Steve Smith, president of the Medical Board, should now challenge Prof Bartholomew to produce the evidence to support his allegations when, at least in one particularly unsavoury case, he had already done so six years ago!

Whatever became of that evidence which was also copied to Dr Hamza Rafeeq, then Minister of Health; Dr Rawle Edwards, acting Chief Medical Officer; Dr Deo Singh, president elect TTMA; Dr Frank Ramlackansingh, president Northern Branch, TTMA; Dr Mitra Sinanan, president Medical Board; Dr James Hospedales, Director, CAREC and Dr Sankar Moonan, chairman, Ethics Committee, TTMA? Prof Bartholomew’s evidence, which took the form of a letter to a private doctor, is ethically blood-curdling and amounts to a grave indictment on TT’s medical authorities who, it appears, simply ignored it. In the interest of the public, it now seems fortunate that the Board has challenged Prof Bartholomew to provide the evidence upon which we now expect, at last, some decisive action will be taken. The letter recounts the unbelievable experience of a woman who was tested for HIV by a private doctor without being informed about it or counselled.

She was declared HIV positive without awaiting the result of the confirmatory test from CAREC, “apparently on the basis of what was allegedly observed as ‘thrush’ in her throat.” “The patient’s faithful husband was also informed by you of the HIV positivity of his faithful wife and that you felt that he may also be HIV positive because of the advanced stage of his wife’s disease,” Prof Bartholomew wrote. “The stress and distress of this middle class couple with a small private business enterprise, as a result of this diagnosis, was of such a serious nature that it caused unbearable domestic and work problems of untold dimension, including suicidal thoughts and marital separation.” All this anguish and heartache were caused by the fraudulent diagnosis of one private doctor. The poor woman never had the HIV! And we can only imagine the fees this doctor must have charged! Will the Medical Board and Medical Association now do something about this act of horror?