Thursday, May 18, 2006

The Cayman Islands Human Rights Council (CIHRC) in a recent report has suggested that a government body erred in procedure when it hired doctors, almost two decades ago, as the doctors did not have the required qualifications, which later cost the country large sums of money to retrain them.

The information has been published in a report outlining the results of an investigation carried out when Cuban refugee Dr Luis Luarca Garcia complained among other things, that several Cuban doctors were given financial assistance by the Cayman Islands Government to pursue studies and himself a refugee was not offered those benefits.

According to the HRC, which is chaired by the Minister of Education, Hon Alden McLaughlin, past Chief Medical Officers were responsible for the hiring of doctors without proper qualifications.

The report said: “In his letter of 7 April 2006, the Chair of the Medical and Dental Council explains that this situation arose because past Chief Medical Officers had incorrectly interpreted the law by hiring doctors to work at the Health Services Department, without submitting an application to the Health Practitioners Board and instead automatically placing these doctors straight onto the register.”

The reported added that, “As a result of this practise, the Health Practitioners Board’s policy of only hiring doctors from specified countries was bypassed in a number of circumstances.”

The report said some of the doctors were working for almost 20 years before the problem was discovered and the Government tried to fix it.

“When this anomaly became evident, following advice from the Government Legal Department, it was decided that the peculiar situation of those doctors required attention.

Accordingly, various periods of additional training were required before continued registration by the Health Practitioners Board would be accepted and some support was provided,” the report said.

The HRC said that the doctors fell in an exceptional category and were “grandfathered” into the system when new health laws were enacted in 2002.

“Moreover these doctors did not receive this assistance out of any philanthropic or altruistic policy towards overseas doctors, but patently because these doctors were already working in this capacity in the Cayman Islands,” the report states.

“The situation that had arisen was not the fault of the doctors. They had not, for example, misrepresented their position; yet as a result of a mistake by former Chief Medical Officers, their livelihood was subsequently under threat,” the report said.

The HRC said that the Government felt it owed these doctors an obligation to at least be provided with the opportunity to continue working in their profession.

anthony@caymannetnews.com

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