Fuad ‘provokes’ health workers

Speaking yesterday in his usual composed demeanour at the “Embracing Leadership Symposium 4”, Khan said as the line minister he “created chaos” as a means of taking health workers out of their comfort zone to make them “think again”.

To press home his point, he referred to his recent run-in with medical staff when he called on members of the public to take pictures of doctors and nurses who they believe were not delivering proper health care. He said although his action angered health professionals, change came eventually. He further admitted to being at times “ludicrous.”

“Create chaos,” was the advice Khan gave in his feature address to the large audience in the auditorium of the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts, Lady Hailes Avenue, San Fernando.

Yesterday’s symposium was organised by Nurse Manager Betty-Ann Pilgrim with the blessings of the South West Regional Authority (SWRHA).

According to Khan, persons in Trinidad and Tobago have lost the ability to think as they continue to live in their comfort zone.

“So when I create that disequilibrium in anything, recently it was the doctors, sometimes it is something else, the reason behind that is to create a disequilibrium, to create chaos, so that people would have to think out of the box. I’ll force you to think out of the box and come up with different ideas. Sometimes it might be ludicrous. Remember when I said patients could video camera (tape) nurses and doctors in the hospital, I got everybody angry, that was the objective, when they got angry, they said they not going to do that but we would take this instead.” Khan said while his action might have had “ten percent of craziness” soon everything was back to normalcy.

Khan said it was important that leaders read Art of War by Sun Tzu.

“Sometimes in a situation of leadership, you are faced with political decisions in such a manner that you sometimes consider it to be elements of war, but it is not that you are at war but that the situation makes it impossible to deal with it,” Khan said. Khan said if he does not return as Minister of Health in the next Cabinet he “didn’t do bad at all.” He was the Barataria/San Juan MP in the last Parliament which officially ended last night.

At the function Khan, on behalf of SWRHA, presented special guest Dr Wayne Frederick, the 17th president of Howard University, an award for Research, Academic Excellence and Leadership. Frederick’s mother is a member of the local nursing fraternity.