STRESSED-OUT DOCTORS

Nov 14, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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I got a phone call which said that one of my friends was not feeling too well and asking whether I would be kind enough to take him to the hospital. On the way, I asked my ailing friend to which hospital I should take him.
His response was more of a question, “Peeper you think we could make it to the USS Kearsarge?”
“We will need a military helicopter to get there,” I replied. “What about the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation?”
“Nah, Peeper, don’t take me there; please don’t do that to me.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Peeper, you didn’t read the report which said that a survey found that 76% of the doctors of that hospital are stressed out? Why you want me to add to their stress, Peeper?”
I knew where I had to take my friend. Not that I have any major problem with the health care offered by the Georgetown Public Hospital. But from a public health angle, I think the authorities need to address this high stress level at the country’s top public hospital.
They need to ascertain just what is causing this high incidence of stress on our doctors. And if the doctors are stressed, imagine the patients many of whom have to wait hours to see a doctor.
If the vast majority of doctors are under stress, then the authorities should make a conscious decision to reduce the high stress levels. The first step of course is to determine the causes of the stress.
Is it the great number of patients which have to be seen? Is it the backup support that is needed?
I believe that steps should be taken to address this concern. Often the steps that would make a big difference require only minor adjustments and not any major overhaul of the system.
My first recommendation would be for all doctors working at the hospital to be prohibited by their contracts of employment from working at private clinics and hospitals.
If over seventy-six per cent of doctors are stressed on the job, then these particular doctors should not have to go and work after hours at other medical institutions.
There are of course other reasons why such a prohibition is sound but the mere high level of stress should be enough to institute such a policy.
This of course will cause some doctors to lose income and therefore I feel that a serious effort must be made for doctors working at public institutions to be paid decent salaries so as to avoid the necessity of them having to supplement their income after hours.
The second change that should be made concerns the Out Patient section. I have argued before in these columns for a 24-hour service.
This may be unique but I believe absolutely necessary in Guyana since all manner of patients find their way into the Emergency Room which I believe should be reserved for accidents and other medical emergencies.
Anyone who has ever been into the treatment rooms of that unit will appreciate that the doctors there have to treat too many patients when they should be concerned with being ready for the real emergency cases. I have seen persons going to the emergency sections with symptoms that do not suggest a medical emergency.
In the case of the Out Patient Unit, I believe that a simple survey would assist. There are hundreds of persons who go there for treatment every day. What is more important than simply the aggregate number of patients seen is, however, the period during which most of them turn up for treatment.
A survey, I believe, would reveal the hours where there is the greatest concentration of patients. This is where there is a need for more doctors but since it is hardly likely that adequate numbers of doctors can be found, what is important is the commencement time for doctors to begin work.
I firmly believe just from mere observation that if we ask the doctors serving in that section to turn up one hour earlier for work and leave one hour earlier, that it would make a significant difference to the waiting time of patients.
One parent is complaining about some eye drops her son received at that hospital. She claims that her son went blind after using the eye drop given by the hospital.
The hospital is claiming that the eye drop supplied is standard for persons with simple eye problems and is used for persons of all ages including babies.
The hospital stated that the blindness of the lad is due to an underlying condition of which the mother was advised.
In the interest of settling all doubts, the hospital should appoint an independent panel of doctors, none of whom should be contracted to the hospital, to examine this case and determine what went wrong with this boy’s eyes.
I find it strange that all these years, the underlying condition did not cause the boy to go blind but by coincidence only after being treated at the hospital he developed blindness.
It may well be a coincidence but it would be best to lay the doubts to rest by having an independent panel look at the case.
In the meantime, I urge the mother of that boy to try to have the American doctors on board the USS Kearsarge look at her son. Then we will know for sure just what went wrong, if anything at all.
I have faith in the American doctors, not because of a foreign mentality but because I know for a fact that no doctor who is stressed out will be allowed to work on such a mission as the Americans are conducting in Guyana at this time.

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