Chatoorgoon stops Medical Board

The order was granted on Monday by Madame Justice Carol Gobin in the Port-of-Spain High Court. The order was served on members of the Board on Monday night as they were about to convene a meeting of the Board at the Mount Hope Hospital.

The judge also granted leave to Chatoorgoon to file for judicial review of the May 29 decision of the Board to inquire into a written complaint dated April 20, 2005 by doctors Rajendra Persad, Lakhan Roop, Colin Furlonge, and Steve Budhooram to the secretary of the Board.

The four named members of the Board were Steve Smith, Neil Adrian Singh, Peter Baggan and Windsor Frederick. Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC, Rikki Harnanan, and Darmendra Punwasee, appeared for Chatoorgoon. No date has yet been fixed for the hearing of the judicial review case.

The four doctors had complained about a notice dated April 18, 2005, signed and published by Chatoorgoon, and placed on the notice board of the San Fernando General Hospital.

Chatoorgoon decided to seek judicial review following a statement dated May 29, by Steve Smith, as chairman of the tribunal, in which he stated, “we have as a committee deliberated on the statements and submissions made to the tribunal and we cannot say we have found the notice, in particular, paragraph six thereof, to constitute a clear threat of homicide.”

He continued, “the notice constitutes in our opinion a clear departure from standards of conduct expected from a medical practitioner and correspondingly constitutes infamous or disgraceful conduct within the meaning of the Medical Board Act. Before we proceed to sanction, we would hear anything you have to say in mitigation.”

On May 29, the tribunal directed Chatoorgoon to file submissions in respect in mitigation and adjourned the matter to June 26 for its ruling.

But before the decision of the tribunal, Chatoorgoon, of Gulf View, La Romaine, went to court. In his application, Chatoorgoon is seeking a declaration that the decision of the tribunal to publish a document entitled “Findings and decision of the tribunal of the Council of the Medical Board of Trinidad and Tobago” is illegal, irrational, unreasonable, vitiated by bias.