CMO reiterates stem cell operation at St. Kitts hospital had no medical or legal clearance; Brazilian doctor was not registered or licensed

BASSETERRE, ST KITTS – Chief Medical Officer Dr Patrick Martin is standing firm that it was an unauthorised and illegal stem cell operation taking place at the St. Kitts Joseph N France General Hospital without his knowledge and approval as required by the Public Health Act and that a Brazilian doctor overseeing the procedure was not registered or licensed to practice in the Federation.
Dr. Martin was responding to a statement by Minister of State with Responsibility for Health, Hon. Wendy Phipps, who denied that the Ministry of Health and the JNF General Hospital is engaged in any stem cell project.
Phipps in a national broadcast however admitted on Thursday that what took place “was a government approved project in the area of Regenerative Medicine in the back of the private ward of the JNF General Hospital with the therapies to be administered by two staff nurses of JNF Hospital, with pro bono, voluntary oversight by a Dr Dwayne Archibald, a Government-paid medical practitioner at JNF. And additional oversight of the project by the JNF Hospital’s Medical Chief of Staff, Dr Cameron Wilkinson; and the Director of Institutional-based Nursing Services, Matron Sonia Daley-Findlay.”
Ms. Phipps, a former private sector executive also admitted that the Brazilian doctor “was only observing the process and in anticipation that she will be professionally engaged during the life of this project her medical credentials have been submitted in the normal course for approval to function within the Federation as a medical practitioner.”
The Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Martin told Freedom FM on Friday that he was alerted to a stem cell operation going on at the Private Ward on Monday June 13th.
“I got some information there was a stem cell therapy operation going on at the Private Ward. When I called the Medical Chief of Staff (Dr. Cameron Wilkinson) at 9 ‘o’ clock and I asked him about the stem cell, he asked me, he thought that I knew about it, so I told him that this has no medical or legal clearance and then I spoke to the matron likewise. At 11 o clock I went to the hospital as is my duty under the institution-based regulations and as CMO I can visit the hospital at any time,” Dr. Martin said.
He said he found there was some activity going on at the private ward which was referred to him as stem cells activity.
“I met Dr. Archibald, gave him some advice in relation to the absence of medical and legal clearance. I met a doctor, a Brazilian doctor who had a stereoscope around her neck and who had gloves on and I told her she is not registered or licensed under the Medical Act , she should cease, desist and leave the premises,” said the veteran CMO.
Dr. Martin said regenerative medicine is a field of medicine having to do with the repair of damaged or injured cells and tissues. “The use of stem cells is a component of regenerative medicine. You can also use other medical products that are linked with,” he said.
He pointed out that somebody must be in charge of a medical operation whether it is called regenerative or stem cell.
“A doctor by law has to be in charge and the Brazilian doctor could not be in charge because she was not registered or licensed but she had a stereoscope around her neck and she had gloves on,” said Dr. Martin.