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Public Doctors, Private Prohibition
posted (April 16, 2020)

New, fine tuned regulations for the national state of emergency come into effect tomorrow.  They are mostly housekeeping, tightening up on a curfew for minors and extending opening hours for banks and utilities. But there’s also one which says that doctors who work in the public sector cannot do double duty in the private sector during the state of emergency. Dr. Manzanero explained the effect and extent of that today:

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"All we are asking in the memo is that people who are employed as permanently established staff in the government system, that they should refrain for the time being from engaging in private practice and that's simply is a means of trying to safe guard the service that they give and the human resource element because as you would note in at least 3 instances of the 18 confirmed cases that we have, these patients were seen doctors in the private sector first before they came into the public sector. So the memo was highlighting the fact that if an officer is exposed in the private setting and then is asked to be under quarantine for 21 days, you understand that can potentially cause issues in terms of the human resource and the health system that we have. That memo makes no reference to private practitioners outside of the government service and it doesn't even make reference to KHMH staff which is governed by a board of governors under specific authority. So that memo did not even go to KHMH because that is not the intended audience."

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