LHC nurses’ resist Minister Edghill’s Strong-armed tactics

THIS MEDIA HOUSE IS IN RECEPIT OF AN HOUR-LONG TAPE OF PUBLIC WORKS
MINISTER, BISHOP JUAN EDGHILL staunchly defending Mr. Rudy Small while virtually accusing
its journalist, Mr. Rawle Nelson, of lying.
Minister Edghill was at the time speaking with nurses from the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) whom,
if you are following this story, Small, LHC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) accused of routinely
abandoning their ailing patients in the health facility in preference for sexual trysts with their ‘Sweet
Man’ outside the campus.
Small’s comments were bombshells sending thunderbolts throughout the bauxite-mining community
shaking it to its core. Male spouses grew increasingly suspicious of their healthcare partners. Community
members openly vilified the nurses accusing them of cheating on their partners.
LHC employees fought back sparking ongoing industrial disputes demanding in the first instance, the
removal of the controversial CEO, who by the day grew increasingly more toxic to his outraged victims.
Small tried to deny making the controversial comments by posting a lengthy presser on Social Media.
When this media house posted a relevant part of the interview of Small knowingly speaking on the record
about the issue, he retreated, hurriedly changing his explanations.
All this time the government was silent but firmly backing Small, who they were forced to remove from
two healthcare institutions for similar verbal indiscretions launched against female Ministry of Health
workers at Leonora Hospital and Diamond Diagnostic Centre.
When rage boiled over, MoH Permanent Secretary (PS) Mr. Malcolm Watkins tried appeasing LHC
nurses by removing Small, but Dr. Frank Anthony, Health Minister, reversed the decision less than 24-
hours after. Small returned to LHC, triumphant.
But the nurses weren’t intimidated by Anthony’s show of force.

They picketed his Lot 1 Brickdam office. But there are no publicly available pictures or videos showing
Anthony has a sliver of interest in the controversy raging in his ‘neck of the woods’.
The largely invisible Minister has not made any public comments either.
What can be discerned is that the government will listen to the nurses’ grouses only if they end their
industrial dispute.
That’s the age-old tactic of successive Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) governments and the nurses have
seen that script repeatedly when the party ruled for 23 consecutive years from October 1992.
Edghill was in Linden accompanying Prime Minister, Brigadier (ret’d) Mr. Mark Phillips, to install new
Boards of Directors. Afterwards, they met with the nurses who were still actively in industrial dispute.
Phillips was conciliatory, Edghill, unsurprisingly, inflexible and combative.
“I heard the audio tape that was circulated and I listened. As you all know, I have some leadership here in
Linden (referring to some citizens who gave him information, including a prominent contractor). Rudy
Small offered an unequivocal apology making no excuses and blaming nobody for his misspeaks as you
may call it…,” Edghill said in defense of his party comrade.
But the Bishop’s remarks missed the mark.
Small first lied, then was forced to change his story when www.aroundtheregions.com posted relevant
portions of the taped interview with the CEO on Social Media.
But Bishop Edghill persisted in the untruths in a bid to redeem Small.
“My understanding is that Mr. Rudy Small didn’t make that statement in an address to the nurses, he did
not make that statement in an address on radio or to the newspaper. He was speaking to someone
privately and loosely and he expressed his disgust,” the religious and political Minister stated.
Britain’s Prime Minister, Mr. Benjamin Disraeli is credited with popularising the phrase, ‘there are lies,
damn lies and statistics’. The controversy created by Small’s loose lips avoided statistics, but Bishop
Edghill revered the positive and comparative elements ‘lies and damn lies’ when he brazenly tried to
hoodwink the nurses with this fictive statement:

“A journalist who was speaking to him in his private capacity recorded him and release it publicly. I am
not excusing Rudy Small and I want you all to understand that, a man who is not being told that he is
being taped by a banter or a gaff. All of us gaff privately. But it is wrong for somebody to record a
conversation, didn’t say that they were recording it and then make it public”.
Edghill is knowingly repeating Small’s original lies in a bid to force LHC workers to believe the
deceptive remarks if they are repeated often enough.
“Mr. Rudy Small offered an unequivocal apology and you are saying that is not his apology,” Edghill said
trying to rebuke and shame the nurses.
“Who chooses or appoints the CEO of a Hospital, the nurses or the administration?” Edghill queried.
He continued, “Are you asking by protest action the responsibility of the administration is removed and
the nurses now chooses who now becomes the administrator?”
But the nurses held their ground.
“We are hoping that common sense prevails and that Small is removed,” LHC nurses counselled
Edghill.