Following days of protest action by nurses and regional officials in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) calling for the removal of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC), Rudy Small over alleged distasteful comments he made about nurses, he has been removed from the post. The nurses had continued protest action on Tuesday and were joined by Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) Regional Representative Maurice Butters, who noted that on Tuesday morning, he received a call from the Regional Health Officer (RHO), Dr Gregory Harris, summoning him and his colleagues to a meeting. He said he was then told that the RHO had received a letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry informing him of the CEO’s removal.
CEO Rudy Small
Butters noted that the issue was addressed at an executive council meeting last week and representation was made in this regard.
“Last Friday, at our executive meeting in Georgetown this matter was reported to our executive council. Immediately we made that report, the President of the Union had a letter dispatched to the Minister and to other stakeholders, including the hospital and Regional management calling for the immediate removal of the CEO,” Butters said.
He noted that this was done on the grounds that the CEO was “scandalous” in the alleged remarks.
Calls to the RHO by this publication went unanswered.
Meanwhile, the nurses stood outside the office of the CEO on Tuesday.
“For me, this is deep and then for him to hurl such remarks. All my years in nursing I have never ever heard anyone hurl such remarks. Right now here are nurses that are living in some very abusive relationships, there are nurses that are the breadwinner of the home. Right now, that creates conflict. It is not easy for us as nurses, and for me, he needs to go to court for defamation of character,” one nurse said.
Some of the protesting nurses
The CEO in a statement issued last Friday said that in mid-February, a reporter from an online news agency which he named, inquired into the reason why the Linden Hospital Complex requested budgetary funding for the introduction of an Electronic Timekeeping System. He said he explained that among the several challenges the Linden Hospital Complex faces is a small number of staff members signing in to work and then disappearing until the end of their shifts. He said he further explained that it is the strong belief of the Linden Hospital management that the Electronic Timekeeping System would make it more difficult for staff members to leave their shifts for long periods of time. “At the end of the interview, off the record, the reporter and I engaged in casual banter. During that off-record conversation, certain popular rumours relating to the issue of disappearing staff members were highlighted. Those rumours have nothing to do with the introduction of a timekeeping system at the hospital. These rumours relating to behaviour of nursing staff have been part of the folklore in this community long before my arrival as the CEO of the Linden Hospital Complex. I was shocked and mortified when I subsequently was informed of a FB post by the reporter which has been circulated widely. In this post, the reporter added salacious commentary alleging certain inappropriate behaviour of nurses led to the decision to introduce an electronic timekeeping system. At no time in the formal interview did I ascribe the need for a timekeeping system to be related to the rumoured behaviour of nurses or any other staff,” the CEO noted in the letter. (G13)
