Public Health Minister Dr George Norton says the “grave situation” in the health sector stems from a lack of oversight, which he blamed for many problems. In his presentation on the final day of the general budget debate last Friday,
Norton noted the National Health Policy Committee, which is chaired by the minister, has not met for more than two years.
“As the saying goes… the fish rots from the heads downwards,” the minister said.
Prior to Norton’s appointment in May, Bheri Ramsaran held the ministerial post since 2011.
As a result of a lack of appropriate oversight in the sector, there has been a lag in the tabling and updating of legislation, he noted. The minister specifically mentioned the Nurses and Midwives Bill, which is to replace the ordinance now in effect. The minister stressed that his government will be taking steps to see this legislation and others like it implemented.
Norton also expressed shock at attempts by the previous government to blame the new government for state of health in the country.
Acknowledging that there have been eight maternal deaths this year, the minister said, “Mr. Speaker that might be so because among other things, only 37 percent of complicated pregnancies received appropriate care. In Guyana, we need 700 midwives but we have only 78. We have to do better than this Mr. Speaker and we will.”
He also bemoaned the fact that Guyana’s infant mortality is extremely high.
Dr. Norton told Members of Parliament that the goal was to reduce infant mortality to less than 14 per 1,000 births but it stands at 23.1, while child mortality rate under five years of age was supposed to be 16 but stands at 24.2 for 2014.
“Actually, the result of a multi-indicator cluster survey shows that in Guyana, the probability of dying within the first month of life is 22.9 per 1,000 live births and between birth and first birthday is 31.8,” he said, before adding that between birth and the fifth birthday, the probability of your child dying here in Guyana is over 39. “In 2014, neonatal deaths at the GPHC alone were the following; during the month of June, there were 25; July, 30, August, 44; September, 33; October 35 and the trend continues,” he further said.
He also addressed the high maternal mortality rate, which has seen the World Health Organisation in a just completed report classify Guyana as the only Caricom country, including Haiti, that shows “No Progress.”
According to the minister, the report tracks trends in global maternal mortality rates for the period 1990 to 2013. The politician noted that the target had been to reduce maternal mortality to below 80 to every 100,000 births, which amounts to less than 11 deaths in a year. Instead, the rate in Guyana, which was 210 deaths in 1990, rose to 250 in 2013.
In promoting his government’s focus on primary health care, Norton attacked the opposition’s preoccupation with the termination of the Specialty Hospital project.
He said some believe that this hospital would be the “magic wand to solve all the problems of mothers and babies dying but in the majority of cases, our infants die from sepsis (infection). This Specialty Hospital happens to be one of the ‘so-called’ transformational projects of the past regime that had to be abandoned due to poor conceptualization in the first place, no consultation with the local medical fraternity and other stakeholders, while information about this budget seemed to be top secret to the PPP/C regime.”
He added, “What was most shocking about this whole project was the tendering and award of contract for this project to Surendra Engineering Inc. About the track record and performance of this company, I go no further only to say that one cannot help remembering that famous quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4, when Marcellus says, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’. Well, something was rotten with the Specialty Hospital.”
The Public Health Minister concluded that while the battle to save the health sector is a daunting one, “losing this battle is not an option. We have to win it.”
“The coalition is eager to put into full action mode [the National Health Strategy] to make Guyanese the healthiest in the Caribbean and the Americas by the year 2020,” he added, while noting that the new government will be pursuing a renewed focus on primary health care so as to extend the life expectancy of the average Guyanese.
