Friends and former patients of Australian Gloria Christie, whose Phnom Penh Surya Medical Services clinic was shut down last week for operating without a Ministry of Health license, have formed a committee to defend the woman they call “Dr Gloria.”
Saying they represent hundreds of Christie loyalists, the expatriate patients said Tuesday that they are gathering signatures to petition the Ministry of Health to reopen the shuttered clinic.
“Whether she has a license or medical degree is irrelevant, she is a natural healer,” committee member Nancy O’Hara said. “We cannot believe Surya is closed.”
O’Hara, a retired American, said she accompanied Christie to Bangkok last week for treatment for liver problems. She said Christie deserves a medal for her unpaid work with poor Cambodians.
“She is the only doctor my kids have ever known,” she said, adding that she does not know or care whether Christie has a medical doctorate.
The Health Ministry said Monday that Christie has yet to provide proof that she is a medical doctor.
The committee members said they will seek signatures Sunday evening at the Foreign Correspondents Club for their petition.
Committee member Michele Gilkes, a British writer, said Christie loyalists would like to see Surya reopened, even if it turns out that she is not in fact a medical doctor.
“I don’t need a doctor to treat my diarrhea,” Gilkes said. “If you are going to hold Dr Christie up to the spotlight then you have to do that to every other doctor in town. I don’t believe any of them would still be open.”
Dr Sin Somuny, director of Medicam, a consortium of health NGOs, said he would support greater scrutiny by the Ministry of Health of the qualifications of private health practitioners, which 80 percent of Cambodians use.
“This case should be used as an example of how to apply the change in approach,” he said.
He said qualified doctors have an in-depth understanding of anatomy, pathology, ethics and drugs that is necessary to run a full-scale clinic.
“I do not agree that all clinics would close if closer licensing procedures were enacted,” he added.