Nurses call for probe into SWRHA board resignations

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA) is call­ing for an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the mass res­ig­na­tion of the South-West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (SWRHA) board, warn­ing that pro­longed lead­er­ship un­cer­tain­ty could un­der­mine health­care de­liv­ery, work­ers’ rights and pub­lic con­fi­dence.

In a me­dia re­lease on Mon­day, the as­so­ci­a­tion urged Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe to rec­om­mend suit­ably qual­i­fied peo­ple for ap­point­ment to a new board and en­sure con­ti­nu­ity of the au­thor­i­ty’s op­er­a­tions.

The call fol­lows a se­ries of res­ig­na­tions that re­sult­ed in the board be­ing dis­solved, with con­cerns al­so raised about the re­la­tion­ship be­tween the board and SWRHA chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Dr She­vanand Gopeesingh.

For­mer board mem­ber Dr Cha­toor­goon al­leged that Gopeesingh re­fused to im­ple­ment four res­o­lu­tions unan­i­mous­ly ap­proved by the eight-mem­ber board.

“There were four board res­o­lu­tions the eight-mem­ber board had unan­i­mous­ly passed, but the CEO point blank re­fused to im­ple­ment them,” Dr Cha­toor­goon told CNC3 News.

“This CEO was dis­mis­sive of, dis­re­spect­ful to and dis­obe­di­ent to the SWRHA Board.”

Gopeesingh and Bo­doe had not re­spond­ed to re­quests for com­ment by Fri­day, while at­tempts to con­tact the SWRHA’s com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er, Kevon Ger­vais, were al­so un­suc­cess­ful.

The res­ig­na­tions un­fold­ed over sev­er­al months. For­mer deputy chair­man Natasha Mooni­lal, a qual­i­fied at­tor­ney, re­signed in Feb­ru­ary, but her po­si­tion was nev­er filled.

For­mer chair­man Anil Go­sine, Dr Cha­toor­goon and di­rec­tor Sinanan Dass re­signed last Mon­day. Go­sine cit­ed per­son­al rea­sons, Dr Cha­toor­goon said he want­ed to serve at the na­tion­al lev­el, while Dass said that, at 78, he could no longer bear the bur­den of a board ap­point­ment.

On Thurs­day, five more di­rec­tors, Shar­ma, Gokool-Seep­er­sad, Hall, Richard­son and Saun­ders, ten­dered their res­ig­na­tions, to take ef­fect with­in two weeks.

The TTNNA said the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the res­ig­na­tions raised crit­i­cal ques­tions about gov­er­nance, lead­er­ship, ac­count­abil­i­ty and over­sight at the re­gion­al health au­thor­i­ty and should not be treat­ed as a rou­tine ad­min­is­tra­tive mat­ter.

It al­so ex­pressed con­cern that the board’s dis­so­lu­tion came amid con­tro­ver­sy over ter­mi­na­tion no­tices is­sued to dai­ly-paid work­ers, un­cer­tain­ty about their em­ploy­ment sta­tus and re­ports that the no­tices had been with­drawn.

The as­so­ci­a­tion said the sit­u­a­tion re­in­forced the need for a prop­er­ly con­sti­tut­ed board to en­sure ef­fec­tive over­sight, fair em­ploy­ment prac­tices and safe­guards against ar­bi­trary de­ci­sions, vic­tim­i­sa­tion and abuse of pow­er.

It stressed that work­ers’ liveli­hoods must be pro­tect­ed and em­ploy­ment de­ci­sions must com­ply with ap­plic­a­ble laws and es­tab­lished pro­ce­dures.

The TTNNA called on Bo­doe to com­mis­sion an in­de­pen­dent and trans­par­ent in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the res­ig­na­tions, en­sure con­ti­nu­ity of health­care op­er­a­tions and com­mu­ni­cate clear­ly with work­ers and the pub­lic about in­ter­im arrange­ments.

It al­so urged the Gov­ern­ment to in­tro­duce mea­sures to pre­vent a re­cur­rence.

The as­so­ci­a­tion point­ed to the Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ties Act, Chap­ter 29:05, which pro­vides for a board com­pris­ing a chair­man and deputy chair­man, along with rep­re­sen­ta­tives and mem­bers with ex­per­tise in ar­eas in­clud­ing med­i­cine, nurs­ing, fi­nance, busi­ness man­age­ment, per­son­nel man­age­ment, in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions and law.

It said the ab­sence of a prop­er­ly con­sti­tut­ed and func­tion­ing board jeop­ar­dised the in­ter­ests of health­care work­ers, pa­tients and the wider pub­lic.

The SWRHA serves more than 600,000 pa­tients and is the coun­try’s largest re­gion­al health au­thor­i­ty. It is re­spon­si­ble for three hos­pi­tals and 31 health cen­tres across South Trinidad, in­clud­ing three dis­trict health fa­cil­i­ties.

“Health­care de­liv­ery must not be com­pro­mised by pro­longed lead­er­ship un­cer­tain­ty,” the as­so­ci­a­tion said, adding that ef­fec­tive gov­er­nance was es­sen­tial to safe and ac­ces­si­ble health­care, sta­ble in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions and pub­lic con­fi­dence in the health sys­tem.

The TTNNA said nurs­es, mid­wives and oth­er health­care work­ers de­served fair­ness and sta­bil­i­ty, and called for de­ci­sive min­is­te­r­i­al in­ter­ven­tion to re­store ac­count­abil­i­ty at the SWRHA.