Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh has di­rect­ed the im­me­di­ate re­in­state­ment of Dr. Joel Teelucks­ingh, who was placed on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave by the South-West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (SWRHA) pend­ing an in­ter­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

“I note that Dr. Joel Teelucks­ingh has been sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave by the South-West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty,” Deyals­ingh said in a state­ment on Sun­day. “Whilst I find his opin­ions and writ­ings some­times con­tro­ver­sial, I am a firm be­liev­er in free speech even at my own per­son­al ex­pense.”

“In that be­lief, I have di­rect­ed that Dr. Teelucks­ingh be im­me­di­ate­ly re­in­stat­ed and the in­ves­ti­ga­tion be con­duct­ed whilst he is on the job,” he added.

Dr Teelucks­ingh con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia that he had been sent on leave with im­me­di­ate ef­fect, with the mat­ter now in the hands of his at­tor­neys.

His col­umn skew­ered the cul­ture of hos­pi­tal “un­veil­ings” and po­lit­i­cal fan­fare, sug­gest­ing that new fa­cil­i­ties are opened with­out staff, equip­ment or prop­er sys­tems to serve pa­tients.

The SWRHA, in its own state­ment, did not name Teelucks­ingh but con­firmed that an em­ploy­ee had been placed on leave to fa­cil­i­tate an in­ter­nal probe. The Au­thor­i­ty said the in­ves­ti­ga­tion was re­lat­ed to com­pli­ance with its gov­ern­ing law, the RHA Code of Con­duct, and oth­er rel­e­vant poli­cies.

“This de­ci­sion was made in ac­cor­dance with our com­mit­ment to up­hold­ing the high­est stan­dards of pro­fes­sion­al­ism, ac­count­abil­i­ty, and in­tegri­ty,” the SWRHA stat­ed. It added that no fur­ther de­tails could be shared at this time, as the in­ves­ti­ga­tion is on­go­ing.