Dentist charged for allegedly refusing to treat patient based on ethnicity

…as ERC accused of breaking its SoPs

A dentist attached to the Fort Wellington Hospital was on Wednesday placed before the court for allegedly refusing to treat a patient based on her ethnicity.
Dr Surendrapaul Rampersaud, of Cotton Tree Village, West Coast Berbice (WCB), appeared before Magistrate Peter Hugh and pleaded not guilty to the charge.
It is alleged that on September 18, 2020, at the Fort Wellington Hospital while being employed as a dental surgeon, the 33-year-old refused to perform a tooth extraction on a child because of the patient’s ethnicity.

The charges were brought by the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) under the Representation of the People’s Act Section 139: A (ll).
The dental surgeon was released on his own recognisance and will have to return to court on January 22.
He is being represented by Attorneys Horacio Edmondson and Joel Edmond.
However, the matter did not go down well with some ERC Commissioners who stated that the Commission has numerous Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) that must be followed before charges are implemented. In this case, a Commissioner said, those SoPs were not followed.
Meanwhile, an ERC Commissioner, who serves on the disciplinary committee, said there were recommendations to have the matter sent to the medical board. However, persons went ahead and implemented the charges without taking the matter to the full Commission.
ERC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Renne Chester, in an invited comment, noted that the normal procedure is for complaints to be sent to an investigating committee and then based on the findings, each case is sent to a sub-committee which is made up of legal minds who will interview the investigators.
As it relates to whatever recommendations are made, those recommendations should be taken to the full Commission for ratification.
Chester could not say why those procedures were not followed, but promised to look into it. (G4)