Attorney General Anand Ramlogan has rejected suggestions that doctors are not under any obligation to report suspected crimes following medical procedures with patients. He said failure to notify the relevant authorities of such matters will violate the professional code, if not the law. “If the doctor and his staff did not voluntarily assist but did so out of fear for his life, they are in fact victims of a most serious criminal offence—assault and/or battery.” Ramlogan said if a doctor is forced to perform an operation at gunpoint and the gunman escapes with extracted pellets, this should make clear his suspicion that they were unwittingly forced to play a role in what can be considered a “criminal enterprise.”
Ramlogan was responding to fresh evidence that surfaced in a Guardian report yesterday that the doctor who surgically removed 17 cocaine pellets from a suspected drug mule’s stomach last December at the St Augustine Private Hospital was allegedly threatened and made to perform the illegal surgery at gunpoint. The information was revealed by PRO of the Medical Association Dr Austin Trinidade and another medical professional, who requested anonymity. The patient has since died and the doctor did not know the man who held him at gunpoint, so police may never be able to charge anyone in the case.
Trinidade said the doctor did not breach medical ethics, as he “did medically what he had to do,” and there was no legal requirement for the doctor to report the discovery of the narcotic. On Thursday Ramlogan called on the police to reopen the probe. He said the doctor did not fulfil his legal obligation to report the incident to the police. Yesterday, Ramlogan said it was necessary to provide some clarification about the responsibility of doctors when they are confronted with delicate and difficult situations which might involve criminal offences. Ramlogan said principles of confidentiality which govern the normal doctor-patient relationship cannot and does not apply in situations where medical practitioners operated under duress.
The AG said transportation of drugs by ingestion is a fairly well established occurrence and at minimum, the doctor’s suspicion should be aroused and the police should be immediately notified so that the suspected drug mule could be apprehended and placed under police guard before or after he is transferred to a public hospital. Alternatively, Ramlogan said the police could keep the suspect under surveillance, monitor his movements, and at the appropriate time he could be questioned by the police on the identity of his accomplice.
Ramlogan also supported statements made by the secretary of the Medical Board of T&T (MBTT) Dr Hariharan Seetharaman who indicated “that a doctor could not hide under the refuge of a breach of confidentiality” and that “whenever there is a legal scenario, the doctor must inform the police.” Asked if information had come to hand that six staff members of a private hospital were questioned by an attorney recently, Ramlogan said “this is a matter by law for the office of the DPP, the Police Service and the T&T Medical Board. I sincerely hope that this matter is not swept under the carpet and that it will be thoroughly and properly investigated so justice can be done, and there would be no repeat of this extraordinary incident.”
