Persons with disabilities and who are members of clinics for chronic diseases at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) may soon have free transportation to attend the clinics, compliments of the Ministry of Health.

Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy speaking at a press conference yesterday said that they are hoping to have those persons attend clinic once a month and on that day the ministry would provide transportation once they live in Georgetown.

The minister explained that they are working along with the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security which is in the process of compiling a register of persons with disabilities and the GPHC will go through the list to see how many of those persons are at the clinic.

“But it is not an ambulance, it is not a case of someone calling and saying I am sick and I am disabled and need to go to the hospital. It may get there some day but for now it is just for those who are in chronic diseases clinics and it is once a month,” the minister said.

Next week is designated a week for persons with disabilities and the minister said one of the problems such persons face is that minibus and taxi drivers often refuse to pick them up, especially those who are forced to walk with the assistance of a cane.  He said persons told him that they sometime have to hide their canes in order to get transportation.

The minister is hoping to meet with the minibus association to address this issue since he sees it as an open case of stigma and discrimination. It is the hope of the minister that legislation  would soon be passed to protect persons with disability.

And the minister said there are at present three experts in Guyana assisting in developing a more extensive screening programme for hearing impairment and this is being done at the GPHC and the New Amsterdam Hospital. But soon it is hoped that screening would be done in all the administrative regions.

Meanwhile, the hospital along with its partners are looking to up the ante in their blood collection drive since there is a shortage of blood at the blood bank and it is hoped that the bank would maintain a 125-unit supply.

Dr Ramsammy said there has been an increased need for blood due to more surgeries being done in Guyana and also because cancer is now being treated locally. The minister called on organisations to encourage their members to give blood since the need is urgent.

On another issue the minister said that his ministry is in the process of completing a training manual for depression and anxiety since in Guyana a lot of people suffer from these but it remains undiagnosed.

He said it does not take a psychiatrist to diagnose these conditions and as such they are training health workers throughout the country to make such diagnoses.