Dear Editor,
The more things change for the better under the coalition government, the more some medical staff are resisting change.
About 11.30 am on Thursday 10th September, 2015, one of my family suddenly fell ill when on a visit to a family at Sixth Street, Diamond. I decided to rush him to the Diamond Diagnostic hospital, and on arrival at the gate I saw the guard sitting in her hut. The driver was tooting the vehicle horn for her to open the gate so the car could enter the compound with the patient, but the guard was strolling at her leisure. After parking the vehicle, my wife went to look for a porter, but there was none on duty. The driver then decided to lift the patient bodily onto a wheelchair and navigate through the hospital to a nurse who was booking patients’ names to see a doctor.
She checked the blood pressure of the sick man and directed us through a door. On arriving in the hallway, we saw doctors and nurses busy chatting away as if they were on a go slow; no one came to find out or even look at the patient or ask us what had bought us there. After standing there for a long time without assistance, my wife decided to speak with one of the nurses. She then told us to put the patient on a bed, but at that point the patient was helpless and couldn’t walk, so we asked the nurse to get a porter to help us. She went back among the other nurses and doctors in the hallway and continued her conversation, paying no heed to the patient. Our driver then decided to lift the patient onto the small bed. We waited for about half an hour, and finally a nurse came and told us that she had not received a telephone call from the receptionist about the patient. She then started to ask the patient a number of questions.
She tried to force the helpless patient to sit up, which was impossible, and at the same time cast doubt on how the patient said he felt. This went on for about 15 minutes; she was very arrogant and unprofessional, and later she left, saying that she was going to bring someone else to give a second opinion on the patient’s condition. We waited for almost another half an hour. She was aware that the patient belongs to the Essequibo Coast and had to cross the Demerara Harbour Bridge before it opened at 2 pm so he could catch the 4 pm ferry back to the Essequibo Coast where he lives with his family.
After a while she came back and told me that the hospital didn’t have any drugs not even an 18 foley catheter, which the patient was wearing because of a spinal injury. After hearing this I did not hesitate and took the patient out and the driver put him in the car. We barely made it over to the other side of the bridge when it opened, and just managed to catch the 4 pm ferry at Parika. After exiting the ferry at Supenaam we headed straight to the Suddie hospital, reaching the gate at 7.01 pm. There the patient was promptly attended to by a team of nurses, who acted in a very professional way.
Guyana can ill afford the situation which obtained at the Diamond Hospital.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
