The original article can be found in: Trinidad Guardian By Geisha Kowlessar
Doctors and nurses assigned to the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital are expected to give a minute-by-minute account of Cheryl Miller’s 15-day committal to the facility to Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan today. Khan said yesterday he would be meeting with “everybody involved” including senior officials of the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA). “I have instructed the permanent secretary (Antonia Popplewell) to bring everyone relating to my ministry who would have been involved in this case from the very beginning. “I would expect that doctors and nurses from the St Ann’s Hospital to also be present because they have to give me details,” Khan said. He said although he had received a preliminary report on the matter, he believed that a further probe is needed.
“I definitely think there needs to be a full investigation. I need full details, minute-by- minute account and in specific detail of exactly what happened at the St Ann’s Hospital,” Khan added. Miller was removed from her workplace at the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development by mental health officers on March 21. On Friday, High Court judge Vasheist Kokaram ordered that Miller be released. His order was handed down at a special sitting at the Hall of Justice for the hearing of a Habeas Corpus motion filed by the law firm, Hinds and Company, on behalf of Miller and her sister, Doreen. The matter continues in the High Court on Friday. Miller was administered drugs at the hospital but is expected to undergo toxicology tests to determine whether they might be harmful. Khan, however, has stoutly defended the doctors’ decision to administer the drugs, insisting that they were for her well being. “Doctors are not there to destroy people. They’re there to help them and they have taken an oath to do that. “People are trying to paint a picture of the doctors but that is wrong,” Khan said.
Saying he has examined the matter “from all sides” the health minister said he remained convinced that, from reports submitted to him, that Miller needed help. “I was told that there was ‘no way’ she should be released and the very next day she was released. “Why has that happened? I was also told she could not be released because of certain things and I stand by the recommendations of the doctors. “I have always put myself on the line for the doctors,” Khan said. Asked to clarify “certain things” Khan said he could not divulge the findings of the doctors, again insisting that the recommendations were for Miller’s own good. Assuring that today’s meeting will be conducted with “fairness” Khan said he was not only interested in the Miller case but other issues which affect the general population regarding health.
