Gopeesingh: Covid report proves government’s handling of pandemic was criminal

ISSUES highlighted by a five-man committee appointed to investigate the factors contributing to clinical outcomes of covid19 patients ought to result in the dismissal of Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, CEOs of the regional health authorities and even the Prime Minister who appointed the commission, says former education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh.

Gopeesingh, at the UNC’s weekly virtual report on Monday, spoke entensively on the 105-page report which was laid and reviewed in Parliament last Friday.

The committee, led by Prof Terence Seemungal, met and collected data between January 17 and February 24 before issuing the report with its analysis along with 16 recommendations.

Gopeesingh said, while alarming, the report did not surprise the Opposition.

“Every single fallacy, shortcoming and problem … that this committee has identified, we have been saying that all along. And even patients, doctors and nurses and the families of covid19 victims have also been saying that all along,” he said. "So there are no surprises to the information that has been provided in this report.”

Gopeesingh, a former education minister under the People’s Partnership administration, highlighted the report’s findings of staff shortages at the executive levels, along with nurses, orderlies and patient escorts at hospitals.

He also addressed the overworking and burnout of medical staff, the poor conditions they endured, a lack of contracts offered to young doctors, and the sizable death toll attributed to covid19.

One nurse, the committee reported, was tasked with overseeing some 30 patients at a time.

Doctors, it revealed, were also required to do non-medical jobs like lifting and moving patients and processing nasal swabs. Nurses were also required to do duties outside of their regular functions and complained of being overworked, almost to the point of exhaustion.

“We have been saying that (for 18 months). From early in this pandemic, there has been a shortage of both senior experienced ones and other nursing personnel and doctors."

On Sunday, during a UNC briefing, Gopeesingh also urged the Commissioner of Police and Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate the Government's handling of the covid19 pandemic.

“The nursing association has repeatedly warned (Minister Deyalsingh), and the UNC (we) continuously warned them as well of medical and nursing personnel shortages very early, but they didn’t take us on.

“Concluding that the workload was severe, the committee said it must take a toll mentally, physically and psychologically,” Gopeesingh said.

“They go on to state that privacy and security were also areas of concern raised by the committee. At some sites … three to four young doctors, male and female, had to sleep on mattresses on the floor in the same room. Imagine in the 21st century, in a developed country, this is what was happening under Deyalsingh’s watch.

“Some doctors complained that the door to their room could not be locked. The committee said this was particularly worrisome, given the current state of crime in the country.”

The committee, he said, confirmed the party’s complaints early in the pandemic about a chronic shortage of personal protective equipment for medical staff.

“Where is Deyalsingh? This is a man who said that his responsibility stops at the door of the hospital. That man should have been fired from the time he made that statement but Rowley wouldn’t do that.

In conclusion, Gopeesingh said it is “criminal to allow the fostering of improper medical care which has been going on for the last two years.”

Upon laying the report in Parliament last week, Young painted a different picture. He said the government was always guided by the World Health Organization, and its commitment to the safety of the population throughout the pandemic.

“At all times, the Government’s priority was to protect the population, as best as possible, and to ensure that our public health care system was provided with the best resources that we could reasonably do in our circumstances, so that persons who required treatment for both covid19, as well as, all other medical ailments, would be able to access same,” Young said.

“Fortunately, Madam Speaker, we have managed, so far, to be able to achieve this, and even though in the waves of covid19 surges that we have had to endure at times – our public health care system was pressed to limits, at no point in time did it collapse under the weight of the effects of the virus. We managed.”

However, he suggested that the Opposition made every effort to politicise the issue by attacking the government.

“Unfortunately,” Young said, “whilst having to deal with all of the natural difficulties of managing this pandemic, and keeping our public health care system operational, including a parallel health care system, the Opposition began publicly attacking, not only the Government’s efforts to protect the population, the medical health care professionals who were providing the care, guidance and advice, in responding to covid19.

“The Opposition have been attempting to sow seeds of doubt and, through unfair, and uneducated criticism, have been trying to affect the public’s trust and confidence in our public health care professionals’ efforts in responding to the virus.”