The Chennai debacle

Jun 30, 2009 Editorial

The decision by the government to assist the children who up to Friday, were stranded in India, has not escaped notice. A government has a right and a duty to represent the interest of its people under any condition. President Bharrat Jagdeo, on Friday, told a press conference that he and his government would defend the interest of Guyanese in any part of the world.
The fact that the children had to travel to India for cardiac surgery exposes the shortcomings of the local medical system. It has been no more than three years that Guyana established the Caribbean Heart Institute that now performs certain cardiac procedures such as the introduction of stents and certain open heart surgeries.

These are indeed costly surgical procedures. In the United States, for example, the cost of an open heart surgical procedure is close to US$40,000 or $8 million in local currency. In Trinidad, the cost is slightly less. In India, the cost of such an operation is about US$10,000 but when one considers the airfare and the cost of accommodation and meals, one can imagine that the figure would go up by another large sum.
In Guyana, the cost of such a surgery is minuscule because it is subsidized by the government. The doctor in charge of the facility says that he charges slightly more than US$5,000 depending on the level of surgery.
For some time, a private organization, Kids First Fund, has been taking children, first to Trinidad and then to India. The Ministry of Health invariably contributes to surgery overseas but this could be a very costly exercise depending on the number of people demanding surgery.

In the case of the children, some got money from the Health Ministry but not all would be part-funded, so it is often left to fund-raising efforts or to the goodwill of private citizens and organizations or corporations. It is in this way that Kids First Fund got caught up in the recent debacle, with the hospital in Chennai demanding full payment before releasing the patients.
The hospital claimed that the organization owed some US$91,000; they also claimed that on a previous occasion the organization owed US$13,000 which had to be written off. The news about the detention of the patients took the nation by surprise because no one realized that the Kids First Fund often sought credit. People were of the view that the necessary sums were collected in advance so that the surgeries could be performed. This was certainly not the case.
But we had a previous experience. Trinidad had sued to collect monies owed for similar surgeries. The status of this is unclear although the Trinidad hospital authorities sought to collect from President Bharrat Jagdeo, being the spouse of the first lady who heads Kids First Fund.
One may argue that the organization probably bit off more than it could chew, but the harsh reality is that there is no individual who could see a sick child and play God by drawing lots and deciding who must undergo surgery and who must not.

One parent told the press that he had raised all the funds necessary for his son’s surgery and that his wife and son should not have been caught up in this debacle. He did not take into consideration the fact that his son was merely one of the many sick children and while he may have raised all his money, he was just one of a group, some of whom needed surgery and who just could not raise the money.
What Kids First Fund has done, however, is to expose the fact that there need not be a delay in getting sick children to certain places. Of course, there would be criticisms if the government were to undertake the programme because everyone with a sick child would expect their child to be selected for treatment and would get angry if the child is not.
The government has intervened this time around. It is saying that any group wishing to take children overseas for medical attention must convince the state that it has collected all the money. And in any case, the Caribbean Heart Institute is gearing to perform cardiac surgery on children. The government is subsidising the recruitment of a paediatric surgeon. This is going to reduce the incidence of cases such as that which occurred last week in Chennai.

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The Chennai debacle

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