It’s sickening to hear the stories told about Linden Hospital

Jul 29, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
I read with much concern the article in Thursday July 9th SN, titled, “MP slams conditions at Linden Hospital Children’s Ward”.
This story informed us in no uncertain terms how riled up our Region 10 MP became upon encountering the “deplorable” state of the children’s ward, where her five-month-old son was a patient. The MP, Vanessa Kissoon, like anyone else and as a mother had every reason to become irritable of what has now become the norm at this medical institution, upon observing the unacceptable condition under which her child had to be cared for.
Lindeners refer to treatment received from this hospital as “rough and regular” and “bear stress” and those who can afford it seek medical treatment elsewhere. It is sickening to hear the reports and stories told by those who have been patients there or those caring for relatives there, or just a visitor.
Hardly anyone leaves without being disturbed. The image of this institution is simply not good; one woman complained to me about the benches being thick with dirt accumulated over the years that she refused to sit on – complaints are just too many.
And here is where I need to repeat what I’ve been saying about those who have been placed in leadership position; “top functionaries”. To effectively function and execute their responsibilities, they need to move around for first hand information, on the spot experience. This is just one such area with this undesirable situation, there are other troubling and frustrating areas that seriously need attention.
The quicker our top functionaries wake up to the realisation that they are servants of the people and not the other way around, the better things would be. And even though, as I understood it MP Kissoon “prapa carry aan”, I need to give her a star for one thing; that she was indeed honest enough in saying that she got help because of people she knew and those who recgonised her as a MP, and correctly questioned about the ordinary people, “flat foot” who must contend with this state of affairs daily – fetching their own buckets of water, but knows no one.
The CEO was in order in stating that the MP should have blazed Guyana Water Inc. in the first place, which is still limping along and struggling to put things together; but still, that does not take away from the flaws and defects of the hospital.
As was stated, she was informed that “this situation existed for quite sometime despite several reports to the hospital authorities.” This brings me back to my point about leaders moving about to observe the manner in which people are treated. Had the MP hadn’t any reason to take her son there, probably she would not have known about this deplorable Paediatric Ward. But what of other leaders in our community, were they too ignorant about this situation, or are they just being treated different and so have become “blind”?
Always and always the falling apart of things will lead to special privilege being given to chosen few. And this is the way our society has become, and we do need leaders who are servants of the people and not those who want to be served by the people.
Let me state once more that I do hope that when this new “state of the art” hospital is open it will not only be a spanking new building, but rather, we will see substantial improvement in medical care that the Mackenzie Hospital was once reputable for.
And while I’m on the Linden Hospital Complex issue, I need also to state the decisions taken by the Linden Electricity Company Inc (LEC). to relocate their office where light bills are paid from Pine Street office to the General office.
This is an unnecessary added burden, small as it may seem on the majority of people already struggling and scraping to pay .their bills, the LEC Inc. can more than afford an office somewhere “out front” to take care of this aspect of business.
Frank Fyffe

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It’s sickening to hear the stories told about Linden Hospital

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