ECG service at Georgetown Hospital not available because of ‘lack of paper’

Dear Editor,

There has recently been a lot of interest in the diagnostic services of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) by Mr Eusi Kwayana and others affected re prostate specific antigen tests, biopsies, etc, without any response by the powers-that-be. (Ed Note: Please see letter from the PRO of GPH, Ms Alero Proctor in SN, Dec 9.)

Well, it gets worse.  On Monday, December 6, I was referred by a doctor at GPH to have an ECG, only to be told that the service was not operational for “lack of paper.” The best thing to do was to “check back during the week,” so there I was again on Wednesday December 8, having travelled from the countryside, only to be told by a passing nurse that “nothing has changed since Monday,” and I could check back on Friday, December 10, which I did.

Editor, I have no idea how long this has been going on, but the ECG office area is tightly locked and it has just taken me twenty minutes of scurrying around the place to find out from someone in the Accident and Emergency area that the service will resume “whenever they get the paper.” One senior nurse was particularly helpful in suggesting I “go to a private place” to have the ECG done, which, as a pensioner, I cannot afford.

Since the President is busy opening markets, attending to taxi drivers on cab colour or lecturing UNASUR on “democracy,” and is now in Cancun, to whom do I go? There are many others in my position. Apart from the tax-paying public, where is the Pan-American Health Organisation, the World Health Organisation, etc, that spend so much for access to decent health care? Or do these basic medical diagnostic services have to await the Norway billions?
Can anyone, anywhere, provide some answers please.

Yours faithfully,
Jagdat Persaud