A People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) councillor is insisting that the information provided about Orealla lacking the services of a doctor is accurate.
Laddy Peneux, the PPP RDC Orealla representative, has been supplying the RDC with information which suggested that the Amerindian reservation has been without a regular doctor for more than a year, contradicting claims made by Director of Regional Health Services, Jevaughn Stephen, to the effect that a doctor had been sent to the community, which is home to 1500 villagers.
When the RC met on Thursday, Chairman of the Regional Health Committee, Zamal Hussain, presented a committee report which recommended that Peneux should refrain from reporting inaccuracies to the RDC; failing which, disciplinary
PPP RDC Orealla representative Laddy Peneux
action should be taken against him.
Peneux had, in February, told the RDC that the doctor had been absent from the community since November. The Regional Health Committee was instructed to visit the community, during which the Orealla Village Councillors stated that the doctor had been living on the reservation over the past year, except for the period when his wife was pregnant and when he had to seek medical attention on the coastland.
When the issue was raised on Thursday, the RDC was critical of the reports Laddy Peneux had been providing. This RDC had, for eleven months, been engaged in discussing this issue, and the information we were receiving was inaccurate, Councillor Shurla Scott said.
Peneux, however, has maintained that there have been problems with the attendance of a doctor at Orealla; but according to the Director of Regional Health Services, the doctor at Orealla also serves the neighbouring community of Siparuta — situated five miles from Orealla and having a population of 300 persons.
However, the Region Six Chairman has said he would ask the Captain of the reservation to provide a monthly report on the doctor’s activity.
