Health Ministry pays medical bills for opposition parties - Dr. Ramsammy

Health Ministry pays medical bills for opposition parties – Dr. Ramsammy

Aug 09, 2009 News

The Ministry of Health has reported that even though its building has been destroyed, the medical assistance programme continues unabated. More than 100 persons have applied for assistance since the fire and most of these have already been processed.
In a press statement issued to the media yesterday, Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, said that some of these persons applied for services abroad that are already available at the Georgetown Public Hospital. As such they have been referred to the GPHC.
“The fire never stopped this department from working and we continue to provide assistance in spite of the fact that we are working from make-shift facilities.
“As Minister of Health, I want to thank the staff of this department for their dedication and determination. No one will be delayed in getting financial assistance because of the fire.
“For those who are attempting to distract us and who attempted to stop us by wicked arson, they need to know we cannot be stopped,” Minister Ramsammy said.
He explained that these people need to tell the Guyanese people why they are urging the Ministry of Health to process their own application for assistance.

“Senior politicians on the picket line should be happy that while they were picketing and generally causing a ruckus and trying to promote mayhem in Guyana, we were busy helping people and processing their own application for payment of their medical bills.
It should be noted that while the programme is intended to help those who cannot afford services, the programme also pays the cost of medical bills for many prominent persons, including persons in the opposition parties,” Dr. Ramsammy said.
This year, the Ministry provided assistance to more than 300 persons, more than last year.
Already, more than $100 million has been expended in medical assistance. It is expected that almost $150 million will be spent in the same area by the end of the year.
According to Minister Ramsammy, in 2008, more than $93 million was provided to almost 300 persons who needed to access paid medical services abroad.
Dr. Ramsammy said that a lot of services for which persons are applying are available for free at the GPHC. These include kidney transplants and neurological surgeries, including brain surgeries.
He pointed out that the kidney transplant programme has already completed six transplant operations. Two more are slated for September.

According to the Health Minister, in 2010, the Ministry will further reduce the requests for financial support by increasing free access or access to reduced-cost services.
“For example, the GPHC will introduce our own CT Scan. This programme would provide a paid service at a cost that is about 30 per cent of the present cost in Guyana and about 10 per cent the cost in Trinidad. We expect that CIOG and another dialysis service would be introduced in Guyana by the end of next year.
“These new services would provide dialysis at about half of the present cost. CIOG has promised a dialysis service at about US$100 per treatment and the other service has promised a dialysis treatment programme at about $US90 per treatment.”
Also in 2010, the Health Ministry will introduce a dental laboratory service at the Cheddi Jagan Dental Center which will offer services such as dentures for a small cost, further reducing out-of-pocket costs for the Guyanese citizens.
The Ministry of Health will also offer three pediatric cardiac clinics per year and these clinics will establish a list of children for cardiac surgeries.
“We will make arrangements with surgeons to then do the surgeries in Guyana and or in India and Cuba.
“Through these initiatives more people would benefit from the money we have allocated in the medical assistance programme.”

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Health Ministry pays medical bills for opposition parties – Dr. Ramsammy

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