Dear Editor,
A notice complete with photograph and address was published in your newspaper (July 26, 2009) by the Public Service Ministry (PSM) requesting information about me. I recall seeing similar publications when the police needed help in locating alleged criminals, but never once imagined that my picture would appear in the same way. I am not sure if I should be relieved or insulted that no reward was offered. In 2009 there are several ways to make contact with someone if you really want to – Facebook, Twitter, Google, MySpace, Hi5, telephone directory, etc. In the immediate 24 hours following this publication I contacted the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Health, Public Service Ministry, the Georgetown Public Hospital and the Guyana Consulate in Toronto, Canada.
I was assured that the issue had stemmed from an error in communication between the entities mentioned above, and that it was being handled. I asked for a retraction of similar prominence given the damage that resulted from this action. The retraction is yet to occur but it is necessary if we are to move forward. It is shameful that the same haste is not applied to correcting this mistake as was done in rushing to publication.
A cursory glance at my records at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) would reveal a detailed paper trail of my activities, had anyone been truly interested in establishing the facts. It is regrettable that such a basic check was absent before this notice was published. I have been on unpaid study leave since 2007 and will be finished with my training in June 2011.
For the record, I left Guyana in 2003 on study leave after working for four years under the guidance of Guyana’s principal physician to pursue postgraduate medical training at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. This was done with the express endorsement of the Ministry of Health and the GPHC. The justification for these endorsements can be found in the awards pages of the University of Guyana graduation book of 1998. While in Jamaica I was recommended by the late Professor Charles Denbow for fellowship training in Adult Cardiology at the University of Toronto, my current location. Just recently I have won acceptance for sub-specialty fellowship training in Interventional Cardio-logy to start in July 2010. In the entire English-speaking Caribbean there are probably no more than five fellowship trained Interventional Cardiologists in practice. All of my activities are known and endorsed by the Ministry of Health and the GPHC as part of the long term health sector development.
Over the years while I have been studying I have returned regularly to Guyana and on each visit I have given Continuous Medical Education (CME) lectures to local practitioners or lectured to medical students at the GPHC, most recently on July 10, 2009. How ironic that my lectures were advertised in the very same pages that now carry an entirely different message.
Recent empirical evidence suggests that there have been significant gains made in the local health sector. This can only be strengthened by recruiting suitably trained and qualified personnel. If we treat our own professionals with disdain then the Guyanese people would remain at the mercy of those whose umbilical cords are buried elsewhere.
There must be an abundance of medical specialists somewhere waiting to come to Guyana – a fact that obviously allows someone in the PSM to casually disregard the repercussions of their actions. Questions have been raised previously about why university graduates continue to leave Guyana. This kind of action provides a glimpse of what is really behind the exodus.
A retraction and clarification from the PSM would seem only fair given the eagerness with which my image and reputation were compromised. There must be a better way to recruit and retain suitably qualified professionals.
The leadership of the Ministry of Health and the GPHC have continued to be supportive of physician education, recognizing that Guyana can only benefit from this as we advance to the common goal of better health care for all Guyanese in a competitive global marketplace. For this we should all be grateful.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Mahendra Carpen MBBS, DM
Clinical Fellow
Adult Cardiology
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to the Public Service Ministry for any comments they might wish to make.
