It took courage by Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell this week to bring into the public domain a particular issue that has been plaguing the forward trust of the healthcare system on the island for many decades.
The Prime Minister made mention of the fact that there are persons operating in the system who are just bent on control in their personal interest and not for the good of the country.
This is an aged-old problem that has existed among some of the persons who hold prominent positions in health and over the years operated as a medical cabal whose only interest is to get rich at the expense of their fellowmen.
These are the parasitic elements whose interest is not to serve humanity but to “fill their pockets” and very quickly from the profession.
This medical cabal has been in operation for several years and uses the island’s medical facilities as if it was their own personal domain and ATM machine for money-making.
These people know how to play the political games to pull the wool over the eyes of many of the important persons that make up the Political Directorate of the country.
It was not uncommon to get reports of these people doing everything in their powers to block, as well as to frustrate their own professional colleagues who are prepared to give voluntary service to the poor and vulnerable Grenadians.
THE NEW TODAY can recall a case in which a Grenadian doctor, a former island scholar, was getting the run around some years ago to get approval from the Medical Cabal to practice in the country despite years of service in another country outside of the Caribbean region.
The Cabal is not only among the doctors but also the dentists.
There was one who put every roadblock including use of his political ties and connections to prevent a volunteer team of professionals from Canada to render care to some of the most needy persons in the society on the grounds that this venture will be taking “bread” from their mouth.
Even some of the local doctors who were given “people’s scholarships” under the 1979-83 People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) of late Prime Minister Maurice Bishop returned home and betrayed the ideals of the revolutionary process.
These doctors were selected to undergo medical studies in Cuba to return home to help improve the quality of healthcare for the people and not to see monetary rewards as the end game.
However, with the demise of the Revolution, these doctors became medical hustlers whose only commitment was to make money and to continue to feed on the backs of the very poor and vulnerable people.
It is debatable whether some of the Cuban-trained doctors who were products of the Revolution do give back anything to the people in keeping with the vision of Maurice Bishop and the New Jewel Movement (NJM).
The current Prime Minister was totally correct to call out those who hold important positions in the State Health sector and are selfishly engaged in sabotaging the system for their own selfish and opportunistic motives.
It is not an easy task to crush these elements in the national interest as the cabal is powerful and has its tentacles in just about every important segment of the nation’s healthcare system.
The truth is that the Grenada healthcare system needs a rescue mission from a serious and determined government that is prepared to take bold and decisive action.
In recent years, THE NEW TODAY has carried some horror stories from senior nurses who are bold enough to highlight a number of inefficiencies and under par performance especially at our main medical facility, the St George’s General Hospital.
This is not to suggest that all the eggs are bad and rotten in the system as several nurses and doctors are committed unlike many of their colleagues.
A few years ago, former Prime Minister Keith Mitchell took a hammering when he made a statement at a public meeting in Brooklyn, New York that the doctors and nurses and others at the hospital were thieving all the supplies including meat for patients.
The ex-Grenadian leader was partly correct and should have qualified the statement with the use of the words “SOME OF THE STAFF” instead of using a broad paint brush to swipe at everybody.
The recent statement made by the Prime Minister should send a signal to Health Minister Phillip Telesford that he has the full backing of his “boss” to address the deficiencies in the nation’s health system.
Let’s hope that Minister Telesford will do the necessary follow up action to address the undesirables in the nation’s healthcare system.