Two patients to a bed in the female medical ward of the GPH

Dear Editor,
On Tuesday, November 9, I learnt that my dear aunt was ill and a patient of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corpora-tion.  I visited and found her in the female medical ward.

To get to my nearly ninety-year-old aunt, I first had to pass an unbearable stench in the area of the entrance to the ward.  I then passed some small beds (cots) measuring approximately 6 feet by 3 feet, many of which were occupied by two women. In this ‘state of the art’ hospital, I found that offensive, but proceeded to the place where I found my dear old aunt. Shock is not a word that can be used to describe the way I felt when I saw her.  My aunt was sharing one of these small beds with another lady. She was being treated for a condition which required her being placed on a supply of oxygen. This horrible treatment of our nation’s women and senior citizens is unacceptable!  Day by day, the Government of Guyana is proving that it is more than capable of disrespecting and ill treating the citizens of this dear land. We are moving from maternal deaths, infant deaths, the arbitrary detention and torture of young men and extra-judicial killings to contemptuous treatment of senior citizens.
What next?

Yours faithfully,
Mervyn Williams, MP