THE EDITOR, Sir:SHOULD A medical doctor's signed statement regarding a medical matter within his or her expertise such as the need for leave or death certificate or certification of a person as being fit to operate a motor vehicle, be trusted and accepted? Does not the medical practitioner belong to one of the few trusted professions allowed to vouch for people on documents such as passport forms?
It was my opinion that a medical document signed and sealed by a medical practitioner was 'sacrosanct' until recently when one of our prominent Jamaicans lay seriously ill and I wrote an official letter to the head of the Collector of Taxes, Cross Roads branch, stating that he was unfit to sign a document. The supervisor in charge refused my letter saying that he would have to send someone to see the patient to ensure his inability to sign! And so, a woman from the Office of the Collector of Taxes visited the home, took one look at the patient asleep in bed and retreated to inform her superior that he was indeed unable to sign.
I take this as an affront to all medical practitioners in general and to myself in particular as my medical opinion as to unfitness to sign needed verification by a lay person who was able to do so by observing the sleeping patient.
Did the Supervisor of the Office of the Collector of Taxes, Cross Roads branch, disregard my letter as a show of no confidence in the signed testament of medical practitioners or did he feel that I was in collusion with the family of the very ill honourable gentleman to defraud for monetary or other gain?
For my own peace of mind I would like this question answered.
I am, etc.,
PROF. L. LAWSON DOUGLAS
Kingston 10
