Geisha Kow­lessar

In­jured and ail­ing po­lice of­fi­cers are be­ing ne­glect­ed and for­got­ten by the very ser­vice they have ded­i­cat­ed their lives to build. Ac­cord­ing to sec­re­tary of the Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion Sgt Michael Seales, the or­gan­i­sa­tion had been flood­ed with calls "al­most on a dai­ly ba­sis" by wor­ried mem­bers and re­tires re­gard­ing med­ical ben­e­fits. Seales al­so de­mand­ed that the Gov­ern­ment change ar­cha­ic reg­u­la­tions so as to prop­er­ly as­sist of­fi­cers cov­er med­ical ex­pens­es long af­ter they would have left the ser­vice. He cit­ed the plight of Po­lice Con­sta­ble Ker­ry Ann Mar­tin who was re­cent­ly di­ag­nosed with sco­l­io­sis, a de­gen­er­a­tive med­ical con­di­tion of the spine.

Mar­tin's woes were high­light­ed some three years ago af­ter she was ren­dered part­ly-paral­ysed af­ter a ve­hic­u­lar ac­ci­dent. For close to four years, Mar­tin, who lives in a one-bed­room board house, could not re­ceive a salary from the Po­lice Ser­vice be­cause she was not in­jured while on du­ty. Mar­tin, who was once as­signed to the elite Firearms In­ter­dic­tion Unit (FIU) can bare­ly walk. Her right fist is per­ma­nent­ly clasped and she us­es the aid of braces to walk. Mar­tin, who is in dire need of phys­i­cal ther­a­py, was as­signed last year to the Ca­roni Po­lice Sta­tion to as­sist in cler­i­cal du­ties.

Seales said ac­cord­ing to the ex­ist­ing reg­u­la­tions which gov­erned the Po­lice Ser­vice, an of­fi­cer could on­ly re­ceive med­ical as­sis­tance from the or­gan­i­sa­tion if in­jured while on du­ty. "So there­in lies Mar­tin's prob­lem...She could not have ac­cess to most of the ameni­ties in terms of com­pen­sa­tion for her ther­a­py for re­cov­ery," he said. "Po­lice of­fi­cers are on­ly able to ac­cess med­ical fund­ing if they are in­jured on du­ty...We don't want that any more." Seales said of­fi­cers would have joined the ser­vice be­liev­ing that med­ical ben­e­fits would be free as part of the con­trac­tu­al arrange­ment but when ex­am­ined that was not the case.

Seales al­so made ref­er­ence to As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (Mo­bile) Wayne Richards, who is close to re­tire­ment, re­ceiv­ing dial­y­sis treat­ment. "What would be his sit­u­a­tion af­ter he re­tires?" he asked. "It would mean he would lose all his ben­e­fits be­cause he is no longer in the ser­vice. "The as­so­ci­a­tion wants to cor­rect these ills. We have of­fi­cers who have chron­ic dis­eases which can­not be at­trib­uted to in­jury while on du­ty but are in fact symp­toms of stress of the job."

What the reg­u­la­tions say

Po­lice Reg­u­la­tions 98 (1)

An of­fi­cer who is in­jured in the course of du­ty is en­ti­tled to re­ceive free med­ical, den­tal, op­ti­cal, hos­pi­tal treat­ment and med­i­cines as may be nec­es­sary, as may be pro­vid­ed by a gov­ern­ment, med­ical of­fi­cer or at a gov­ern­ment med­ical in­sti­tu­tion.

Po­lice Reg­u­la­tions 98 (3)

An of­fi­cer who (a) is in­jured on the course of his du­ty and is forced to re­tire on med­ical grounds or (b) has served up to his com­pul­so­ry re­tire­ment age is en­ti­tled to med­ical treat­ment if he is still an of­fi­cer in the ser­vice.