31 Mar 2004

Decision soon on Cooks doctor suspended for not taking up job in outer islands

3:34 pm on 31 March 2004

The Cook Islands' Public Service Commissioner says he expects to make a decision quickly in a case involving a suspended doctor.

Tapukura Rairi, a new doctor graduate, has been suspended by the Health Ministry for alleged insubordination after he defied the Ministry's order to take up a post on one of the outer islands.

The Secretary for Health, Vaine Teokotai, refuses to comment on the matter.

The Public Service Commissioner, Maine Brown, says the case has not yet reached his desk, but when he does he will look into it straightaway.

He also says he expects it to be clear cut.

"The doctor is employed by the Secretary of Health, so it is an employer employee problem, and so what the public service commission then does is to consider the both sides of the concerns in between the employer and the employee and then submit to them a resolution."

Mr Brown says to his knowledge the case is the first of its sort to come before the commission.