Dear Editor,
For years Indigenous people have struggled to cope with the health system which seems to have been designed without our people in mind. The reason I am writing this letter is because of a patient from Chenapou Village who came down last Wednesday, July 20, from Kopinang with a broken bone just above the ankle which he sustained while playing in the just concluded Region 8 football tournament. My concern is that there seems to be no urgency in having the broken limb attended to. Sammy Daniels travelled by air from Kopinang to Mahdia then onward to Georgetown. In Mahdia, he was seen and a half cast was done to stabilize the injury before referring him to Georgetown. In Georgetown an X-ray was done and he was given a date to return on August 15. He was then sent to the Amerindian Hostel where he is expected to wait until his next clinic date. So here we have a patient who has broken bones having to hop around without a proper cast being done to ensure his bones heal properly, and who has to wait for several weeks before he can see a doctor to fix it. By that time it will start healing, and if it’s not properly aligned, then the doctors will have to break it again.
My concern Editor is that many times our people are not given proper treatment. I remember years ago I had a broken arm, and when I was seen by the doctors at the GPHC, they were saying “buck people does bear nuff pain”; I was not given anything for the pain at that time. I was not bothered by the exclamation, but I am concerned that this is the mentality of those we are expecting to care for us. Today I am seeking to have corrective surgery done to my arm as it still pains me and is bent. It feels like the mentality of the people remains the same, even as we proclaim ourselves a progressive country. I do not want this patient to go through what I went through, and for this reason I would like to see his situation dealt with urgently.
Only today I saw an article which made reference to a patient from Lethem who is still unconscious, three months after she had surgery. While some of the reporting in that article is erroneous, I can say personally that the patient was not given adequate care by the practitioners. Imagine the family of the patient had to import from Brazil a special mattress for her as she had developed bed sores which were so bad the bones in her spine were showing.
Thankfully a kindhearted work colleague of a family member also sourced a mattress. It is worrying to see that in these modern times certain basic necessities which should always be in stock at our hospital are the hardest things to find. There were times when the nurses did not clean her and the family had to do so when they visited. I understand the nurses are very underpaid and sometimes overworked, at the same time I believe they have a responsibility to care for the patients.
Many times it is difficult for patients coming from the interior to navigate around the hospital and health care system. Almost on a daily basis you can see them waiting at the hospital for the ambulance to become available to take them to the Amerindian Hostel ‒ sometimes all day. Even when the patient of which I write today was at the A and E, he and some others had to wait on the ambulance to take him to the hostel, I offered to take him; however, I was told that the ambulance has to take him. When the ambulance was available there came a call; the ambulance had to go for an emergency, which the driver and attendants seemed not too interested in as they took almost 5 minutes to get ready before heading out into the night, to return 45 minutes later to take the patients to the hostel.
I look forward to the day when we can access quality health services in our interior locations and not have to come to Georgetown. Many times when we come to Georgetown we suffer twice, as we are treated less than equals. There needs to be an urgent intervention in the affairs of our people and I hope that the Ministers with responsibility for health and Indigenous peoples affairs make every effort to ensure that everything is done to ensure that Indigenous peoples are offered proper and adequate services.
Yours faithfully,
Michael McGarrell
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to Minister of Health, Dr George Norton, for any comment he might wish to make.
