Fuad’s partners get contracts for MRI, CT scans
QUESTIONS are being raised about a $500,000 a year contract which has been awarded to three medical doctors by the Ministry of Health to help clear a backlog of patients awaiting CT and MRI scans at various public health institutions in the country.
The $500,000 figure is the maximum which a permanent secretary is allowed to spend for goods and services on her own.
The doctors are all employed by the Ministry of Health and all have their private practice in the St. Augustine Private Hospital in which Minister of Health Dr. Fuad Khan is a major shareholder. But it is not just this conflict of interest that is of concern to health officials, rather it is the fact that all three doctors also hold senior positions in the health sector and have responsibility for the backlog they are now being privately contracted to alleviate.
According to a contract agreement signed with Permanent Secretary Antonia Popplewell, dated January 6, 2012, the three medical practitioners, referred to as the “Contractors” were Dr. Paramand Maharaj, Dr. Rodney Ramroop, who both gave their address as 91 Eastern Main Road, St. Augustine, and Dr. Alexander Sinanan of Maracas St. Joseph. They have been hired as consultant radiologists over a one-year period to ease the backlog in the health sector.
St. Augustine Private Hospital is located on the Eastern Main Road, St. Augustine. Nowhere in the contract, a copy of which has been obtained by the TnT Mirror, is it indicated that the doctors are attached to or will operate from the St. Augustine Private Hospital facilities.
The doctors perform similar services for the Ministry as their day jobs. Dr. Maharaj is the acting Chief of Staff at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex at Mt. Hope, Dr. Ramroop is the acting Executive Medical Director, while Dr. Sinanan is a senior radiologist. All three doctors, however, are also listed as providing radiology services with the 14-year-old St. Augustine Private Hospital, situated on the Eastern Main Road, St. Augustine. The hospital is partly owned by Dr. Fuad Khan and it is also where his private practice is located. The facility, according to its website, provides the CT scans for which the doctors have been contracted.
Khan was operating from his private hospital up to last November, when he was told to make a choice between his ministerial portfolio and the private practice by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Even so, he continued to remain a shareholder in St. Augustine Private Hospital.
Concerns are being expressed, however, at ministerial level as well as by health workers, who told TnT Mirror that Dr. Ramroop as an employee of the public health sector would have had some kind of responsibility for servicing patients who are awaiting computer tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) interpretation and reporting.
In the contractual agreement, Permanent Secretary Popplewell, in giving a rationale for the hiring of the radiologists, claimed that there was “a major concern by the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago (as it) relates to the need for timely radiology services and a reduction in the waiting list at public health institutions as undue delays can lead to irreversible medical conditions.”
The agreement pointed to the fact that the “Contractors” were invited to submit an expression of interest for the supply of radiology services via a newspaper ad and were invited to submit a proposal for the supply of the CT scan and MRI services.
The Ministry of Health decided on the three doctors, saying that they have shown that they can “effectively, efficiently and competently” provide the services.
The contract went into effect on January 11, 2012, and the three doctors have agreed to a payment of $200 for a CT scan and $300 for an MRI and are required to interpret the reading as well as prepare certification by the appropriate specialist, a report of which must be submitted to the Ministry within two days of receipt of the scans.
The Ministry has agreed to give the “Contractors” free access to the Eric Williams Medical Services Complex Radiology Department, and the North Central Regional Health Authority and cautioned the doctors that they are required to provide all personnel to perform the services, but they must be properly licensed and certified to perform such services.
Because of the fact that these doctors would be in possession of the medical history of patients who had sought attention from a public health institution, the Ministry has included a confidentiality clause in the agreement with the doctors, warning them that even after their contract has expired they were not to “disclose any proprietary or confidential information relating to the services.”
The Mirror tried unsuccessfully to contact PS Popplewell on two occasions but was informed by her secretary that she was in a meeting.
