GPSU calls for "loose and irresponsible" Linden Hospital CEO to be removed

Describing his statements against nurses as disrespectful and irresponsible, the Guyana Public Service Union is throwing its support behind the calls by nurses of the Linden Hospital for the Chief Executive Officer, Rudy Small to be removed.

During an interview with an online media outlet in the Region 10 area, The Linden Hospital CEO accused nurses of forsaking their jobs and abandoning their posts to participate in extramarital affairs, when they should be on duty.

“We have some nurses who are accustomed to reporting for duty at night, they sign in, then they get away and go and sleep with their sweet man”, Small said in the online interview triggering the calls by nurses for him to go. The CEO has since issued an apology.

But at a press conference on Friday, GPSU President Patrick Yarde said an apology is simply not good enough and the CEO needs to be removed.

“The nurses have expressed clearly that they have lost confidence in him. He has been loose and irresponsible and castigating them as people conducting immoral behaviour”, Yarde told reporters.

The GPSU President said in the setting of a medical institution, there is great need for the medical staff to have full confidence in management since a breakdown of the relationship could have other consequences. Yarde said there is clearly a breakdown in the relationship between the two at the Linden Hospital.

In an apology to the nurses, the CEO said the controversy surrounding his statement is now overshadowing the improvement and development plans for the hospital. He asked the nurses to work along with him, as he believes they can all learn from the situation and be better from it.

But the nurses are not budging from their position for the CEO to be moved and Nursing Supervisors at the hospital are also angry over the statement, since they believe it labels them as being complicit in wrongdoing since they are the ones who are on duty overlooking nurses and their work all day.

GPSU Vice President Dawn Gardener announced on Friday that the union has written to the Minister of Health on the issue, making clear the position of the union and the nurses for the CEO to be removed from the hospital.