First Lady challenges court action brought by Trinidad doctor
Guyana Chronicle
November 2, 2003
FIRST Lady, Ms. Uma Jagdeo is challenging a court action brought against the charitable organisation, Kids First Fund, by Dr. Ramesh Mathura of Trinidad and Tobago.
Dr. Mathura, a haematologist attached to Medical Associates Hospital Ltd in the twin-island Republic, who treated eight patients for Kids First Fund, has started legal proceedings against the organisation. The doctor claims that he is owed TT$234,800 in payments for his personal management fees from January 3 - July 17, 2001.
The "proceedings have been directed towards me personally", the First Lady said in a statement yesterday.
Noting that the Fund had entered into arrangements with a hospital and not with Dr. Mathura, the First Lady said Kids First Fund has been committed to honouring its expenses and has since paid Medical Associates in excess of G$7M. Ms. Jagdeo also cited discrepancies in the doctor's calculations of fees and a breach in medical ethics. The doctor, she said, breached medical ethics by "taking passports of our patients and their families and went further to threaten them with deportation if I did not pay his alleged fees.
"With that in mind, I must take a stand and represent not only Kids First Fund, but Guyanese at large who depend on overseas medical institutions to better or save their lives," the First Lady said.
We publish below the full text of the First Lady's statement:
"It has been brought to my attention that Dr Ramesh Mathura of Trinidad and Tobago has started legal proceedings against Kids First Fund. These proceedings have been directed towards me personally, and have prompted this response.
Dr. Ramesh Mathura, a haematologist attached to Medical Associates Hospital Ltd treated eight patients for Kids First Fund; Teshana Singh, Trevayne Lewis, Shellene Salim, Rameshwar Neerahoo, Anil Ramnarine, Kelly Narine, Andrew Sibdhanie and Javed Rambarran.
Dr Mathura is claiming I owe him TT$234,800 in payments for his personal management fees from 3 January to 17 July 2001 of which I had no knowledge of and never agreed to in any form.
On January 3, 2001, two children, Trevayne Lewis and Javed Rambarran, ...were at the time diagnosed with Acute Monocytic Leukaemia and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia respectively; and an arrangement was made by Kids First Fund's office for them to be treated at Mount Hope Hospital.
They were in the ambulance on their way to Timehri, and I received a call from Mount Hope Hospital to say they had no bed spaces at that time and could not accept the children. I contacted Professor Vijai Narayansingh and explained the situation and requested assistance. Professor Narayansingh then offered the facilities at Medical Associates Hospital Ltd as an alternative, which I readily agreed to taking into account that the children were already at the airport.
Other cases included:
On January 19, 2001, two more children Kelly Narine and Anil Ramnarine, diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic leukaemia and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia respectively, were also admitted to Medical Associates for treatment.
On January 19, 2001, Andrew Sibdhanie was admitted to the hospital he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. He died 5 days later.
On February 8, 2001, another child Teshana Singh diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia was admitted to Medical Associates for treatment.
On March 5, 2001, Shellene Salim suffering from seizures and mental retardation and Rameshwar Neerahoo diagnosed with intra abdominal tumour was also admitted for further diagnostic purposes.
There was a verbal agreement in terms of payment, which would be made incrementally once bills were submitted. And a request was also made by myself for a discount on the bed charge, as the children would be there for an extended period of time.
I paid several visits to the hospital in Trinidad during which time I utilised the opportunity to see our patients and also discussed related matters with the head of the hospital's customer services department Mr. Mervyn Gaiff and Dr Aroon Narayansingh, Medical Director of the said hospital.
I paid a total of GY$2,000,000 (two million) between January to March and then stopped all payments after discovering irregularities. I demanded clarification and further requested to see the patient's charts so I could verify what medication was used by the hospital and by Dr. Mathura, to avoid duplication. To this day I have not received any such details. Hence no further payments were made.
These discoveries were brought to the attention of Dr. Aroon Narayansingh. He bluntly refused to make the charts available and further, as a means of satisfaction, would talk to Dr. Mathura.
I met Dr. Mathura on several occasions and queried his system of billing and the sudden appearance of personal management fees, bearing in mind that I had never made such an agreement. He eventually agreed to waive all management fees and charge us only for medication used.
Inconsistencies included:
The first two children were admitted to Medical associates on January 3, 2001, there was no arrangement to pay any management fee, the first indication that we were being charged for this was by bills dated February 7, 2001. These bills showed Dr. Ramesh Mathura's personal fees of TT$6,000 (Anil Ramnarine), TT$6,800 (Kelly Narine), TT$8,000 (Javed Rambarran), TT$4,000 (Trevayne Lewis) and TT$6,000(Andrew Sibdhanie). A total of TT$30,800.
A bill of TT$5,000 for prednisolone medication used over a one-month period for Teshana Singh aged two years. This same tablet was available in Guyana for approximately $10 each. How is it possible that a two-year-old could use 10,000 steroid tablets in one month? This estimation brings me to the conclusion that she was given approximately 333 tablets per day. Unbelievable!
Trevayne Lewis was in hospital for 24 days two bills for that same period was submitted for two different amounts; one for TT$16,287.65 and the other for $18,450.45
How is this possible?
Andrew Sibdhanie was admitted to hospital on January 19, 2001, survived five days and then died on January 24, 2001. The bill submitted by Dr. Mathura comprised of fees for the nursing home TT$5,210 and Dr Mathura's personal bill of $6,000. A total of TT$11,210. The highest accommodation charge per day according to our records was TT$495. This calculation somehow defies the laws of basic mathematics:
Can $495 x 5 = TT$5,210?
In March, Dr Mathura said that he would waive all management fees and we would have to only pay for the medicines used. He then continued to put a management fee on his bills but now he was calling it medication!
On a correspondence sent in May 2001, Dr. Mathura clearly states that fees have been waived for patients Anthony Sibdhanie and Trevayne Lewis.
These are just a few of the many instances where Kids First Fund was taken advantage of by Dr Ramesh Mathura. This doctor breached medical ethics by taking the passports of our patients and their families and went further to threaten them with deportation if I did not pay his alleged fees.
With that in mind I must take a stand and represent not only Kids First Fund but also Guyanese at large who depend on overseas medical institutions to better or save their lives.
For the record I must inform all readers that Kids First Fund is a charitable, Non Governmental Organisation whose objective is to help poor children afford emergency medical treatment, regardless of race, religion and politics.
Monies used for these ventures are from fundraisers and donations, which is not an easy task. We have been committed in honouring our expenses and I have since paid Medical Associates Ltd in excess of GY$7,000,000. Let me further reiterate that my arrangement was with the hospital as an institution and not Dr. Ramesh Mathura as an individual. At no time did I ever agree to any form of payment with Dr. Mathura.
I will be challenging this misdirected court action by Dr. Ramesh Mathura and I am confident that I will be successful in not only winning the case but protecting the interests of the Guyanese people."