Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy is threatening to go to the police over an unaccredited nursing school in the city which he calls “a skilful little operation” that is posing as legitimate and duping young women across the country.
The private institution, which he identified as the Inter-American Nursing School located at Alexander Street and North Road, falls outside the regulation of the Ministry of Health. However, Ramsammy said that he cannot sit around quietly any longer since young women are being tricked and robbed of thousands of dollars.
So far a number of young women have paid for and done courses at the fake school, Ramsammy said yesterday at a media briefing, only to be turned away when they approach the Nursing School of Guyana with certificates that are worthless. The qualifications are also not valid for entry into the programme at the University of Guyana. In the wake of a string of complaints Ramsammy decided to go public.
No nursing school bearing the name of Inter-American Nursing School has ever been accredited by the Ministry of Health, Rammsammy said, therefore courses being offered at the institution cannot be recognized.
According to the minister, the institution is promoting itself as a nursing and health care provider school on the basis that it has been accredited by the Ministry of Health, and has been selling the idea that its courses can be used for admission into the national nursing programme. Additionally, it recently announced the introduction of its services in Berbice.
Ramsammy emphasized that Nursing School of Guyana has very specific and rigid requirements for admission into the three campuses at Georgetown; Linden and Berbice, and the qualifications for admission do not include certificates from the Inter-American Nursing School.
“… Anyone who thinks they will attend the school and use whatever certificate they have to meet the nursing school requirement must be advised that it is not legitimate,” Ramsammy said.
He stated that the fake school also appears to be selling the idea that a student who graduates from there would be able to meet requirements for recruitment as a healthcare worker in the United States. Though local healthcare workers are being recruited by the US, he said, persons are only eligible if they have the Nursing School of Guyana qualification and or that of the University of Guyana since such is required for international jobs.
Ramsammy called the actions of the Inter-American Nursing School unethical, pointing out that persons have approached him with stories about paying money for courses and still awaiting the commencement of those courses. In some cases persons paid as much as $20,000 and attempts to retrieve the money have since proved futile.
He said reports have reached him that pictures of him and officials of the school are mounted in the institution. To this, Rammsammy said, he was known for being a “huggable person”, which is why people can report seeing him “all hugged up with these people”.
But he referred to the actions of the school’s officials as being skilful.
Further, Ramsammy expressed hoped that the accreditation system that the Ministry of Education is putting in place would be enforced shortly, and urged that the process be accelerated because “there are too many of these so-called professional schools going up”. He added that many young Guyanese are being duped.
He said he intends to present some of the complaints he has received to the police, because in some cases money had been taken from people, in what can be described as outright fraud.
