By Drizel Hanley
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-(JANUARY, 2018): Medical practitioner, Dr. Dail Crawford, has fought for his right to natural justice against a decision made by the Medical Board whereby he was suspended indefinitely from his duties as consultant gynecologist/obstetrician at the Joseph N France General Hospital back in 2014.
Fast forward to November 2017, a judgement handed down by High Court Justice Marlene Carter declared that he was denied his natural justice rights and in particular his rights to procedural fairness.
Information gathered by this media house indicates that with the next leg of his upcoming trial, Dr. Crawford is hopeful that he shall be vindicated once again thus further restoring the credibility of his name and practice.
The suspension he received also included a revocation of his hospital operating room privileges as a private practitioner.
Such suspension came on the heels of allegations equivalent to a serious misconduct charge.
Subsequently, and rightfully so the Board met and had a discussion on the matter.
What is alarming though in the views of people who followed the case, is that Dr. Crawford was not given the opportunity to answer to the charge of serious misconduct made against him.
The life altering decision was made in his absence and so he did not get the chance to defend himself against the allegations.
Consequently, the doctor explored every means of communication in an effort to seek an audience with the Medical Board requesting reasons for his suspension. Unfortunately the Medical Board never responded.
Dr. Crawford thereafter took the approach to seek a fair resolution. He moved the matter to Court and filed a suit against the Attorney General’s Office for breach of his natural justice rights on and a November 27th 2017 judgement handed down by High Court Justice Marlene Carter went in his favour.
Additionally, he was awarded damages and legal cost to be assessed.
For years after his suspension, Dr. Crawford existed in social media mayhem filled with rumours and attacks to his professional reputation.
Public debate has pointed to Dr. Crawford’s years of studies and diligent getting caught up in controversy because of failure on an organisation’s part to properly address the allegation with procedural fairness.
He currently runs a private practice in Basseterre which is said to be thriving as he remains steadfast in his journey for complete vindication against all the injustices meted out to him.