Minister of Public Health Dr. George Norton on Thursday said an investigation has been launched into allegations that health workers attached to the Fort Wellington Hospital were neglecting their duties when victims injured in a robbery turned up for help last month.
The Minister said that the investigation includes both officials from the Ministry of Health and citizens from the area.
Abdool Kadir and his wife Neeranie were chopped during an attack by three men armed with cutlasses and a gun on August 16th. Afterward, they were rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital for treatment.
However, family members said they were first greeted with a locked gate, which was opened only after their constant banging roused a security guard.
After they were allowed onto the premises, their frustration continued as they were forced to endure a wait of more than one hour for treatment because health workers were asleep and had to be awakened, one of the Kadirs’ daughters, Shaneeza, had told Stabroek News.
Since Neeranie was severely chopped, she was given priority while her husband, who also sustained chops about his body, was left waiting for about two hours before he was attended to, the family has said.
Neeranie was subsequently treated and transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), while her husband was treated and discharged.
Neeranie was eventually forced to seek private medical attention because she continued to experience excruciating pain after she was discharged from the GPH.
The woman, who is still bedridden, is unable to take care of herself. She is now required to visit a private hospital on a daily basis for treatment.
Speaking to Stabroek News last evening, a relative said the doctors at the Georgetown Hospital did excellent work in fixing the wounds Neeranie sustained but she said that the medication which the woman was given was not helping her.
After visiting a private hospital in New Amster-dam, the relative said Neeranie was advised by the doctors to undergo treatment with antibiotics, which would be administered via daily injections.
Since the hospital refused to sell the medication to the family, the relative said the family has been forced to transport the woman to the hospital on a daily basis to receive the treatment.
Threats
One man has been charged with the attack and is currently a remanded prisoner. However, relatives of the Kadirs maintain that the other men who were involved in the attack are freely roaming the streets and have been sending threatening messages to the family.
“Them say how that next time them come back, them go come fuh kill,” the relative stated. When questioned whether relatives reported the threats, the woman said it was a waste of time to go to the police after the lawmen refused to act on previous reports on the whereabouts of the men.
Numerous calls were made to the police to visit and arrest the men, who are in close proximity, but the police never heeded their calls, the relative said.
Two days after the attack, the woman recalled seeing four men armed with cutlasses in a nearby empty house. The men were seen hiding something in the yard, the relative related, while noting that the police were called. A mask along with clothes and a tape were later retrieved from the property, the woman said.
“The police only a say how them a do investigation fuh fool people but nothing nah do,” the upset relative related, while adding she would have at least been pleased if the police could have heeded the pleas from relatives to arrest the men and properly investigate.
