Minister of Health and the Environment, Senator Ann David-Antoine has lashed out at the GRENADA TODAY newspaper for breaking the story about an alleged sexual molestation of a female patient by a male Cuban medical personnel at the St. George¹s General Hospital.

A young lady from the Bailles Bacolet area in St. David¹s confirmed to this newspaper that she had made a formal complaint to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) about the incident.

The Cuban is alleged to have put his mouth into the woman¹s private parts while preparing her for surgery at the hospital. The victim told both GRENADA TODAY and the police that the Cuban suspect was a doctor.

However, hospital officials later confirmed that the Cuban was not a doctor but actually a male nurse at the hospital. In launching a broadside attack on GRENADA TODAY, the Health Minister branded the article as ³very defamatory² and that the writer of the story had no evidence to support that allegation.

³The person accused is not even a doctor, it¹s a male nurse², she told reporters at a press conference. The minister stated that the information published in the newspaper was very embarrassing to the Cuban Embassy and the relationship existing between Grenada and Cuba.

³If an individual of any nationality should be involved in any kind of action that is not a positive action that action does not have any bearing on the person¹s nationality², she remarked. According to David-Antoine, the allegation that was made to the police by the woman is very far-fetched and unlikely but as the minister with responsibility for the health sector, a full investigation will be carried out into the matter.

³I have no complaint, the ministry have no complaint from any female. We have no complaint of this nature, and when a complaint comes through it would be dealt with², she said. ³...We are not waiting for a complaint to come true from anybody. I have asked the staff in the ministry to carry out a full investigation into the matter and when any information comes to life the press will know,² she added.

The senior government minister in defending Cuban medical personnel on the island pointed to the amount of help the country was receiving from Havana. ³We are grateful to Cuba for all the training opportunities that are being afforded to our people in Grenada,² she said.

She made mention of Cuba¹s assistance to Grenada through the Miracle Eye Mission in which several locals have had free corrective eye surgery. ³...To have such an article in the newspaper is you know I really cannot find words...how...distressed, disappointed I feel about this kind of Journalism², she quipped.

The Health Minister stressed that without the help of Cuba the island would not have completed the first phase of the General Hospital. She expressed disappointment with what she said was the attack on the Cuban people by the newspaper.

David-Antoine implored Journalists to be careful with the kind of information they put out since they might not be aware of the implications from such attacks. This is the second allegation of sexual misconduct levelled against Cuban trained medical profession operating in Grenada within recent months.

Several government ministers at a recent public meeting and in parliament had alluded to allegations of sexual abuse by a doctor with close ties to the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Local attorney-at-law, Derek Sylvester is representing the Grenadian woman who has made the formal complaint to the police against the Cuban medical personnel.