Bartica Hospital rejects patient, orders transfer to the city

Dec 28, 2008 News

Relatives of 62-year-old Gladys Constantine, of Bartica, are pleading with the Ministry of Health to look into the treatment meted out to them last Tuesday at the Bartica Hospital.
According to Constantine’s daughter, Beverly Constantine, her mother, Gladys, fell down in the kitchen as a result of some water that had been spilled on the kitchen floor.
As a result of the fall, she sustained a broken femur (thigh bone), but her relatives were unaware of the extent of her injuries so they urged her to lie in bed until the pain went away. However, the pain increased, and they rushed the injured woman to the Bartica Hospital, where doctors disclosed to family members the extent of the woman’s injuries.
Doctors told relatives that Constantine had broken her thigh bone.
Constantine’s daughter said that the nurses told them that her mother had to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital, since the Bartica Hospital was incapable of dealing with such cases.
She said that after the nurses said that her mother had to be transferred, she enquired about how she would be transferred.
She was shocked to learn that she would have to “stand the cost for her mother travelling to Georgetown”.
The woman said that she told the nurses that she cannot afford to stand the expense of taking her mother to the city hospital.
Meanwhile, the patient, Gladys Constantine, was lying on an aluminum table, waiting on the next move.
After the daughter learnt that the hospital would not be standing the cost, she took her mother home.
The daughter said that the next day she arranged with a speed boat operator to have her mother taken to Parika.
But it was not as easy as it sounded. People rushing to the city caused many of the speedboats to refuse the passenger. Eventually, they managed to charter a vessel at a cost of $30,000.
The hospital merely loaned her a stretcher, but she did not have $30,000, so she solicited other passengers to help defray the expense. In the end, she paid $18,000 to have her mother taken to the hospital.
Upon arrival at the hospital, the injured Constantine was immediately x-rayed and admitted.
The daughter is presently pleading with the Ministry of Health to launch an investigation. A senior official at the Georgetown Public Hospital expressed alarm that the family had to pay, because it is the responsibility of the hospital to transfer patients.
The Bartica Hospital promised to have an ambulance at Parika to transport the woman to the city hospital. This promise was fulfilled, but, again, at some cost to the relative. The nurse at Bartica claimed that the phone was locked up, so the relative had to loan them her cellular phone to complete the call to the city.

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Bartica Hospital rejects patient, orders transfer to the city

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