Ill treatment of Venezuelan woman: Severe & drastic disciplinary actions to be taken – GPHC CEO

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) Robbie Rambarran has assured that there will be no cover-up in the investigation into alleged malpractices by medical practitioners regarding the ill treatment of a Venezuelan woman in labour.
Mayhelm González, a 32-year-old Venezuelan woman, who had a stillborn daughter on January 18, blamed the heartbreaking outcome on the treatment she endured at the GPHC.

She has alleged negligence and mistreatment, including emotional and verbal abuse, by the hospital’s staff. González alleged that at one point, a doctor pressed their elbow into her belly and told her that if she did not push, her baby would die.
González, who operates a business at City Mall, said she waited several hours before begging the doctors for a cesarean section (C-section). Despite being unable to move, the doctors reportedly forced her to walk to another bed on her own for the surgery.
The GPHC has since launched an investigation into the matter, and a meeting was held on Monday to examine the preliminary findings.
On Tuesday, GPHC’s CEO, Robbie Rambarran, was questioned by Guyana Times regarding the situation. He explained that a meeting had been held on Monday to review the probe’s preliminary findings.
“There will be absolutely no cover-up, no leniency in this. if there is any malpractice, people will be held culpable because this is unacceptable. if the story that is being told is factual, I promise you that it will be dealt with accordingly. I promise you there will be no cover-up of this. there will be severe drastic disciplinary action, I promise you that,” he stated sternly to the public.
Meanwhile, the GPHC CEO emphasised that more can be done by medical practitioners to display more empathy to patients.
“Certainly, you know for wanting a better terminology sometimes they say common sense is not common, and you will expect people who are trained in this profession to carry out themselves in some form of dignity, empathy. I’m not saying whatever was reported is factual, but I know we have had instances of this people, the way they speak sometimes… and I don’t want to say it’s a culture, but it’s a typical example of the way people drive on the road, the sort of road rage, and it’s unacceptable.”
He added that on the base level, nurses must consider that respect must be granted to every human being.
“I’m not gonna lie, these things do happen. I mean specific to this case, but these things do happen. people say things, people act in very irrational ways. sometimes they act reactive. sometimes patients or their relatives, the way they speak to the healthcare workers, sometimes they react, and that is no excuse for that. but as human beings, sometimes they react, but it’s completely unacceptable. it would not be condoned.”
Amidst this, he relayed that Guyana needs to confront and deal with these issues which attempt to cause faults within the ongoing hill of the health sector in Guyana.
“We have been making lots and lots of investment being in equipment, being in training, being in specialised supplies, things like these reconstructive surgeries that we have just talked about, and we are not gonna allow these personalities to affect that. we need to confront it and deal with it. we need to make people examples if we find them culpable of these acts.”
According to the CEO there’s absolutely no place for racism, no place for any creed, culture, religion issues in a hospital.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Medical Council of Guyana, Dr Navindranuth Rambaran, addressed the allegation of a medical practitioner pressing down on the woman’s belly while she was in labour.
“With regards to deliveries and the methods and techniques – what we use would be standard internationally recognised techniques of deliveries, and we don’t have any suggestion that anything outside of that was done. I can’t answer specific to pressing down on the belly that you spoke about, but we do follow international procedures of techniques and procedures for deliveries, and we don’t have any suggestion that anything outside of that.”