Trinidad and Tobago's health minister Jerry Narace is launching an immediate probe into the death of a patient at the country's St Ann's Psychiatric Hospital.Reports allege that staff at the hospital beat the patient, who died Saturday within 10 days of being admitted.
Media reports quote unnamed sources as saying the unidentified man had to be sent to the Port of Spain Hospital on July 16 with injuries received from a severe beating.
Narace has pledged to investigate and take appropriate action against anyone who acted out of line.
And he has ordered authorities to suspend all staff who allegedly took part in the incident. The minister is holding the board of the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) fully responsible.
Police are also investigating while the ministry conducts its own internal probe. "I would like to assure the national community that the investigation will meet our full and unreserved cooperation," he said in reference to the police investigation.
The ministry's investigation will focus on the management systems of the NWRHA, both on the clinical and administrative level.
Reports suggest that while the staff appear to be the ones who will get blamed entirely for what happened, the real blame lies with the authorities who have failed to provide adequate resources to deal with patients at the hospital.
The Express newspaper quoted sources as saying the man who died was very violent and caused other mentally ill patients to become agitated. The three young nurses, they said, did everything to control the 70 patients under their care.
"This is not an issue of the staff beating patients, this is an issue of limited staff having to deal with issues at the hospital without the correct tools and support," one source told the paper.
"If any, any, of those young men are sent home or lose their jobs, this hospital will be shut down and that is a sentiment felt by every member of staff because we all know that the hospital allowed this to happen," another source said.
The minister expressed his anger through a media release in which he said he is "profoundly saddened" by the incident, adding that he is appalled and dismayed over the matter.
He condemned what he described as negligence, adding that he trusts that "this is a unique circumstance and does in no way reflect on the care provided at the hospital overall."
Hospital authorities are remaining silent on the matter because they don't want to "prejudice the investigation".
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