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Health Ministry to probe services at Diamond Diagnostic Centre
– in wake of failure of ambulance to pick up hit-and-run victim
By Michael Jordan
Minister within the Ministry of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, has launched an investigation into reports that the Diamond Diagnostic Centre is often failing to provide adequate service to the public.
The investigation comes in the wake of a report in Sunday’s Kaieteur News, which stated that staff at the institution failed to send an ambulance for Ramona Harris, who was struck down by a hit-and-run driver near Eleventh Street, Diamond Housing Scheme.
Minister within the Ministry of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran
When Kaieteur News had informed the staff about the accident, a female security guard had first claimed that no ambulance driver was available.
She had then located a driver, who then told Kaieteur News that he was only authorised to transport patients from the Diagnostic Centre to Georgetown.
Another employee had then tried to contact the Hospital’s Director, Dr. Anwar Hussain, for permission for the driver to transport the badly injured woman to the hospital.
A pickup driver eventually took Ms. Harris to the Diagnostic Centre, but no porters were on duty to take her from the vehicle. Persons who had accompanied the driver had to assist the lone female attendant to take the patient to the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit.
Ms. Harris succumbed some 20 minutes later from the multiple injuries she had sustained. She had been lying on the roadway for several minutes while the staffers were deciding whether to send the ambulance.
Expressing alarm at the allegations, Dr. Ramsaran told Kaieteur News yesterday that he had already instructed a senior health official to investigate the complaints.
“I am shocked to hear that the ambulance is only dispatched through the administration and I am going to look at that. At such an institution we should have quick response.”
Dr. Ramsaram stated that he had also been receiving complaints about security guards at the institution deciding who should see the doctor.
“The guard needs to send the person to whoever is in charge at the time.”
The Health official said that he had once described the Diagnostic Centre as “a gem,” when the institution had first opened, and that the medical staffers had been seeing some 250 patients a day.
But he acknowledged that even before the Kaieteur News story, he has been receiving negative reports about how the institution is functioning.
“Within the past three months we’ve been having some concerns. These are academic issues and we will be looking at them to make changes.”
The Diamond Diagnostic Centre (with one of the parked ambulances, on Good Friday night)
According to him, the Diagnostic Centre had “started beautifully.” He explained that for the first year, the institution had been run from his office.
Dr. Ramsaran indicated that there may once again have to be more direct intervention from his office in an attempt to sort out the present problems.
But the health official described the present batch of Cuban and Guyanese Doctors at the institution as a “dedicated team.”
The Diamond Diagnostic Centre was opened in October, 2007.
Dr. Ramsaran had stated that medical staff had treated over 75,000 patients, including 321 critically injured persons in the first year.
The Centre has a diagnostic area equipped with x-ray, ultrasound, and Endoscopy equipment; a clinical laboratory, an Ophthalmology Unit, and a dental clinic area. It also has an Accident and Emergency service, an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and an ambulance service.
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