– as govt appoints new chief medical officer
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Karen Boyle has been overlooked for the post as the chief medical officer as the PPP/C Government went outside of the hierarchy and appoint Dr Narine Singh to perform the duties.
In an internal memo by the Permanent Secretary Colette Campbell and copied to Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony it was noted that as of October 1, 2020 Dr Narine Singh will perform the functions of CMO as the substantive holder of the post, Dr Shamdeo Persaud proceeds on preretirement leave.
Top officials at the ministry said they were taken by surprise at the move to promote Singh instead of Dr Boyle. ” She is the deputy and if the chief is going on leave one expects the deputy to take over but someone else is placed above her,” the official told Village Voice. The post of deputy chief medical officer was created by the APNU+AFC coalition in 2016.
Dr Boyle graduated from the Bishops High School in 1983 as a Guyana Scholar. She graduated from medical school in Moscow in 1990 then served as a general practitioner at the Georgetown Public Hospital. From 1998 to 2002 she served as the director of the National Genito-Urinary Medicine Clinic where patients with HIV and STIs were cared for and treated. It was whilst serving at that clinic that she decided to specialise in Public Health as she realized that her training as a physician was inadequate to deal with the social determinants of health.
She received her Masters in Public Health from Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health in 2005 after which she served many donor funded HIV projects. In 2015 she received her Doctorate in Public Health from the University of the West Indies Mona, Jamaica. Dr Gordon-Boyle has served in senior technical and management positions on multiple international donor funded projects.
Her contribution to Public Health in Guyana was recognized in 2016 when she received the prestigious PAHO/WHO Public Health Achievement award. She is also an entrepreneur, philanthropist and active member of her church. In June 2016 Dr Gordon-Boyle joined the Ministry of Public Health as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer.
