Doctor wins lawsuit against Health Ministry

A SENIOR doctor yesterday won a lawsuit against a decision to bypass him for promotion as registrar consultant in the Maternity Ward at San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH), where a doctor junior to him was given the post. Justice Peter Jamadar, in his judgment, warned that the lives and limbs of members of the public must not be put at stake by placing junior people in supervisory positions. In handing down judgment yesterday, in which gynaecologist Dr Krishna Rampersadsingh was held to have been unfairly treated, Jamadar lambasted the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health for conducting themselves in a manner undermining the public trust and confidence in public administration.

Rampersadsingh sued CMO Dr Rohit Doon and PS Hamid O’ Brien. The judge warned in a written judgment at the San Fernando High Court, “Though true for all Public Service, it is critically imperative that in the health care sector, the highest standards of public administration are maintained — for what is at stake here are the lives and limbs of people.” Rampersadsingh was bypassed on four occasions for the consultant registrar (gynaecology) post. He complained via letters, but Jamadar stated that a letter from the CMO (who at the time was not Doon but rather Dr Rampersad Parasram), specifically stated Rampersadsingh was not being considered for appointment until an independent investigation was conducted.

Jamadar asked, “But into what allegation, when and by whom?” No investigation was conducted and Rampersadsingh was not informed as to why he was not elevated to the registrar post. Attorney Anand Ramlogan argued the doctor’s case, while the State was represented by attorney Neil Byam. The judge stated that fundamental fairness demanded that Rampersadsingh be told, with sufficient particulars of the allegations against him, the persons making them and of any investigations conducted. In ordering the State to pay Rampersadsingh’s costs, Jamadar, in the nine-page judgment, stated, “this kind of conduct by a CMO and the PS is not conducive to good administration.”