Was Kenneth Blounte too blunt?

KENNETH BLOUNTE’S SOCIAL MEDIA POST DETAILING HIS EXPERIENCES OF
STARVATION while a patient at the flagship Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal went
viral attracting the attention of the government.
Mr. Nigel Dharamlall, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, contacted Blounte’s wife,
Geeta Bisnauth, for details of his travails, and, assured her of his personal intervention.
Minister Dharamlall honoured his word.
Soon after, Dr Mangal contacted her via telephone, and she too promised to probe her husband’s specific
complaints. Dr Mangal did disclose, according to Ms. Bisnauth, that multiple patients made similar complaints
made by her husband.
When some nursing staff learned that Minister Dharamlall got personally involved, they directed outrage at
Mr. Blounte, according to his wife. They guaranteed he will suffer as long as he remained a patient at that
healthcare institution.
“My husband did tell me that some of the nurses were not happy, and some began deliberately
ignoring him after he had revealed what was taking place within the hospital. Despite this he
would tell me that he is getting his meals, as many persons in the hospital thought that he was
connected or someway was exposing what they (the nurses) were doing in the hospital,” the wife
said in an exclusive with www.aroundtheregions.com
Social media posts seen by this media house, and interviews done with confidential healthcare
sources, confirmed Ms. Bisnauth’s account of what her husband said he was subjected to while
hospitalised at the Infectious Diseases Hospital.
“I think that some nurses didn’t see this as a regular complaint. They felt that with a Minister
getting involved, some persons may lose their jobs because, truth be told, many of the nurses
don’t have time to feed some of the patients because of their work load. So, with it being felt that
he was exposing them, many persons didn’t want anything to do with him, and the Sister who

had gotten into a heated exchange with him and everybody else kept their distance,” the source
explained.
They damned Blounte as the whistleblower.
The source said Blounte aggravated the already fragile situation by promising nurses to expose
their misdeeds nationally when discharged. One of them assured him his enterprise will fall
short. Blounte was tested for the dreaded Corona virus, but happily, his results were negative.
The hospital never discharged or transferred him immediately, and this was blamed on the
Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) staunch reluctance to accept COVID-negative
patients.
“GPHC generally has a resistance towards persons who have been confirmed COVID negative.
Generally, they don’t want them in the ICU. It’s not the first time that this is happening. So, the
Anaesthesiologist that was doing transfers had to upbraid them (at GPHC). It is only when the
doctor ‘made noise’ that GPHC decided that they will accept the man (Mr. Blounte),” a senior
doctor in the public health system explained.
Apparently, private hospitals were allegedly cautioned by GPHC’s Dr. Tracey Bovell, Chair of
the Georgetown Public Hospital's COVID-19 Task Force, about patient Blounte. All his efforts
to get medical attention from Woodlands, St Joseph Mercy and Dr. Balwant Singh Hospitals,
were rebuffed.
The senior medical practitioner told this media house that the response from these private
hospitals are normal, and within their rights, if they so choses to do so.
“The private hospitals will…seek to protect themselves, and the truth is. that they can refuse a
patient based on several grounds,” the practitioner explained.
Mr. Blounte died, eventually, from pneumonia.