Dear Editor,
I read recently that Minister of Public Health, Mrs. Volda Lawrence advised the House that the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at GPHC only had blood culture bottles available 39.2% of the times in 2018.
Blood culture bottles are very critical in diagnosing potentially deadly infections. Without blood culture bottles, doctors would not know what bugs are causing the infections and what are the appropriate antibiotics to use. Frankly they would be guessing and most times would be dead wrong.
Many neonates will die as a result of their guess work. What’s the whole purpose of building a multi-million dollar NICU when basic things like blood culture bottles are absent? Having a nice building in the papers with the Minister of Health surrounded by malleable medics while cutting a useless ribbon makes no sense to the rational mind.
Editor, diabetic inpatients at GPHC have to buy their own diabetic test strips. Basic medications are either expired or absent. GPHC does not have bed sheets, pillows, pillow case or adequate beds. Patients have to share beds. No isolation rooms for patients with very contagious infections. No privacy rooms for the dying patients. They die in full view of the ward, many patients are traumatised at what they have to see. When they finally escape their misery by taking their last breath, they are left there for the curious and scared eyes to see, scared stiff like the rigor mortised deceased, until the nurse completes her social media posting and the overworked and underpaid porters find the time to take the dead to an equally disgusting morgue. The washrooms and showers are absolutely dirty. Faeces staining the walls and toilet bowls. No water to flush toilets. Privacy is at a premium. I know this because my brother was an inpatient there last year. We had to buy bedsheets, pillows and pillow cases, of course which were stolen, and basic stuff like gloves to tidy him since the nurses were too busy on their phones.
While I was in Guyana, I did some investigations. I visited a few health centres. Diabetic patients with infected diabetic feet had to buy their own saline dressing and topical antibiotic creams to get their feet dressed. Basic antibiotics were absent. I can go on but I will stop here.
When I wrote that GPHC should focus on getting the basic rights before venturing into the complicated I was attacked. I was labelled as peddling inaccurate information. I was accused of causing harm to the local patients.
Why do kidney transplants when they lack the basic training to deal with potential complications and manage the transplanted kidneys? Why do coronary angiograms and stents when they lack the basic skills and facilities to deal with complications?
That’s the reason why I have been arguing for a focus on the basics that can save lives and not the headlines grabbing garbage. Get the basic right then venture into the complicated after.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Mark Devonish
MBBS MSc MRCP
(UK) FRCP(Edin)
Consultant Acute
Medicine
Nottingham
University Hospital
UK
