Saturday, February 25, 2023, 5:06 pm News Flash Archive

Four more physicians who worked for Greenwood Leflore Hospital are leaving Greenwood.

In early February 2023, Drs. Niroj Bhattarai, Vignesh Kannan, and Roger Blake were removed from GLH's website list of physicians.

Yesterday, GLH confirmed that all three of these doctors are no longer employed by GLH.

Additionally, Dr. Dezarae Leto has turned in her 90 day notice, and will be leaving toward the end of April 2023.

Bhattarai and Kannan were working as hospitalists. They were both from overseas and here on visas. Hospitalists are physicians who take care of the patients who are admitted to the hospital.

According to GLH's website, there are now four hospitalists still working there: Dr. Sara Bell, Dr. S. R. Evans Jr., Dr. Jenay Neely, and Dr. Abhash Thakur.

Generally, the hospitalists work daily 12 hour shifts, one week on and one week off, so it takes at least four hospitalists to provide round the clock coverage.

Dr. Roger Blake, who lives in Cleveland, was a general surgeon at GLH. He still has courtesy privileges, meaning he can conceivably still operate there as a private physician.

Blake is still listed as a surgeon at Bolivar County Medical Center in Cleveland, and North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville.

Dr. Leto came to Greenwood last summer, specifically to work in an underprivileged area.

In a profile published in the Greenwood Commonwealth last November, Leto stated:

It's a spirit-driven, faith-driven purpose in my life that I feel like I want to provide to underserved areas in the world . . . so I sent out my CV everywhere in the country I felt was an underserved area.

Leto will be moving to Oklahoma and working as a surgeon on a Native American reservation. According to her wedding website, she is set to be married in May 2023 to William Combs, also of Greenwood.

When Leto departs, that will leave only two general surgeons at GLH, Dr. John F. Lucas, III, and Dr. Raymond Girnys. Girnys was let go by GLH in May 2022, but he is now doing surgery there with a private surgical clinic. To see our previous reporting on Dr. Girnys' situation, view here: More Doctors fired by Greenwood Leflore Hospital

GLH also has two orthopedic surgeons on its payroll, Dr. Asa Bennett, and Dr. Jay Culpepper.

GLH has lost, or dismissed, a long string of respected doctors over the past few years. To read our extensive reporting on this issue, see here: Greenwood Leflore Hospital quietly closes down additional services, loses more doctors

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To review our reporting on GLH and its financial woes, please see here: Index of Greenwood Leflore Hospital news articles

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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