ORTHOPAEDIC surgeon Dr Derrick McDowell has been returned to his job with full pay, days after he was interdicted on allegations that he refused treatment to a patient at the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital.
McDowell is expected to resume duties at the St Ann Hospital today, eight days after he was indicted and his pay slashed in half.
His reinstatement followed a meeting yesterday at the North East Regional Health Authority.
It also comes a day after senior doctors at the hospital threatened to take action should the board fail to reinstate him at that meeting.
A source told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that McDowell was issued a letter notifying him of his reinstatement.
According to the source, the letter also stated that he would be paid in full for the period of his interdiction.
He was, however, informed that investigations were continuing in the allegations that he had a patient at the hospital transferred to another hospital without treating him. The letter said he would be informed of the outcome of the investigation, the source said.
The orthopaedic surgeon was informed of his interdiction on October 5 by way of letter from Regional Director Fabia M Lamm. In the letter, Lamm informed McDowell that he was being interdicted for not treating patient Conroy Simpson, who had been involved in a motor vehicle crash.
Lamm noted that Simpson was sent to Cornwall Regional Hospital on September 29, but was sent back to St Ann due to a shortage of beds. According to Lamm’s letter, Simpson was subsequently sent back to Cornwall Regional.
But a source said that McDowell had no choice but to transfer Simpson due to safety concerns for the doctors and nurses at St Ann’s Bay Hospital. However, the source said that Simpson was transferred after his broken hands and a foot were placed in plaster of Paris and he was treated.
— Paul Henry