Dear Editor,
One of the signal achievements of the PPP/C government of 1992-2015 was the dramatic improvement in the health sector. The health services had actually collapsed by 1992. Lack of drugs and poor physical conditions were devastating people. In the early 1990’s we had a case where a five-year-old child had her arm bitten by a rat at the Public Hospital.
Today, we have a totally re-built hospital and some very important services added. The hospital is now able to do heart bypass operations; dialysis for kidney patients and boasts a cancer ward; we are also doing operations such as knee replacements and other complicated operations in orthopaedics. George-town Public Hospital has a modern Burn Care Unit as well.
In the two decades of PPP/C administration we had had some real successes.
We have HIV/AIDS, a major killer in the 1990s, under control. It is now more of a chronic illness than a killer. We have also drastically reduced Malaria disease and the vaccination rate is very high.
Those are real gains over the years. The medical personnel in the public and private sectors must be recognized for the work done.
However, we still have some areas that need to be looked at. This relates mainly to costs. The following is based on many complaints made to the author and incidents that were related by people with bad experiences at our medical institutions, both public and private.
The first and most widespread of these is the money hungry attitude of many persons and institutions providing medical services to the public. It appears to some that the pursuit of huge fees is more important that curing the sick.
One of the goals that the PPP/C pursued was to find ways and means to provide world class medical services to our people at affordable costs. It was to that end that sometime in 2012 or 2013, the Cabinet approved the purchase of equipment to facilitate heart bypass operations at PHG. It was bought for US$1 million. Moreover, a lot of money was spent to upgrade facilities so that services of a high standard could be provided to people.
When that equipment was purchased for the Georgetown Public Hospital the discussion at the Cabinet focused on how a wide cross-section of people would benefit. It was made clear that the facility must also be used by specialists coming into the country to provide free services to children and other vulnerable sections of the society.
One group from Calgary, Canada, did and is probably still doing great work in providing world class service to our people. That group even donated other equipment to our hospital. Much thanks must go to Dr. Deborah Isaacs who heads the group.
Unfortunately, I understand that many groups that provided voluntary services are experiencing great problems in having access to these facilities, which were purchased with taxpayers’ money, that has resulted in some of them abandoning their humanitarian work in Guyana.
Some of those that manage the Public/Private Partnership facilities are more interested in money than the patients. Stories abound about how people are treated. I heard of the ordeal of a wife whose husband was on the operating table opened up. He had to pay a few million dollars before the operation was done. While he was being operated on, I am told that they went to the wife who was sitting outside and told her that they found another problem and enquired whether she would pay to get it attended to then or should they close up the patient. The poor woman scrambled around to raise the funds.
Even though this is a Public/ Private operation it is being operated like a private institution without any appreciation of the public’s contribution in establishing these facilities.
Some similar stories are being talked about including the operations of the Cancer Institute. I am told that in some cases patients have to pay for the ambulance service.
The situation in the private institutions is even more distressing. I am aware that one of the first arguments people use when the issue of the cost of medical services is raised is that the rich use it and they can afford the costs.
This is a half-truth and a big misconception.
Many people who use these facilities are lower and middle income people who sometimes cannot wait on a long waiting list at the public institutions, particularly, for surgeries. Many use it because they are the sole providers for their families and cannot afford to be laid up for long. They need to work, a lot are self-employed persons without insurance.
Of course, there are others who feel that they would get better service at the private institutions than the public. That is often a misconception on their part. Many of these people end up spending their whole life’s savings to get these services.
I am aware of a person who had to spend some time in a private hospital. He was charged some $60,000 per night for a tiny room there. This is far more than you pay at the Marriott for a luxury room.
In one of these private hospitals I am told that almost all the pregnant women who go there to deliver, have labour induced and end up doing a caesarean section delivery. The reason is that the fees are much higher. The same is true for other kinds of illnesses. Some people feel that they are often induced to stay in the hospital unnecessarily so that money could be extracted from them.
One of the repulsive behaviours of the private hospitals is that when patients’ money is exhausted they are transferred to the public hospitals.
They also encourage the transfer of dying patients so that those persons would die at the public hospital. That, for them, is to protect their reputation of having few deaths.
As we begin to find a shortage of drugs and some level of slackness at the public institutions, more people, who can barely afford, will continue to flock the private institutions.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of government, nay a duty to protect our people from the super exploitation which they are exposed to. Getting sick in Guyana can lead to poverty.
If we do not protect all our people, the poor and even the more privileged, in their vulnerable periods, then we can have a reversal of the gains and massive exploitation of the sick will not only continue but can become the norm.
The regime has a liking for Commissions of Inquiry. Maybe one is needed for this sector.
Yours faithfully,
Donald Ramotar
Former President
