The entire healthcare system needs a serious revamp

Oct 22, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
“This is high class lawlessness”; “Send them [the nurses] home with a flogging”; “Their attitude is a total disgrace”; and “…how can this happen in a civilized country?” were just a few samples of comments of members of the public about the death of second- year student of  the University of Guyana, Esther Dwarka-Bowlin.
Those statements were echoed among calls for the letting go of the Minister of Health due to the fact that these same issues keep popping up at hospitals nationwide, with Skeldon having the most body count.
But here we have it on our hands once more; the (preventable) death of my UG classmate, an educator, an academic, a head teacher, a student, who, in just over two years would have graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Education, and who would have been added to the hundreds of skilled and qualified teachers in this great land of ours. Once again, in just a matter of weeks, another mother was taken away from her children. How on earth do some people suffer these kinds of fate, I ask?
Skeldon Hospital, without a doubt this week, would be a place where a hive of activities would be taking place. I presume that the ‘big ones’ with their diaries and note-pads have arrived already and started to question everyone; interviewing persons; and filling their pages with the details of the horrible incident.
The highest levels, meaning the Minister and his senior officers, too, I am sure, are demanding a full report on their desks. After all the interviews and information gathering and evidence collecting, then what?
I shudder to think that the death of this young lady would be for nothing, as more hospital slip-ups and carelessness mixed with total unprofessionalism and unprincipled behaviours would continue to emanate from this and other health facilities around Guyana.
For too long Guyanese have been complaining about the shabby treatment that their family members and themselves are given whilst visiting their loved ones in the hospitals, or even during their admittance to these facilities.  For too long, some nurses have allowed their uncouth standards and actions to take precedence over the important mandate and vow to administer the best possible healthcare and treatment to patients who they would come in contact with.
Something is very wrong with the attitudes of some nurses in the hospitals. This I know from experience, as it was only the other day when I witnessed uncompassionate behaviours from a few at the medical ward at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
How some of them treat my fellow Guyanese — the stories I hear — make my blood boil. And I always hear that many Guyanese who visit public hospitals are not pleased with the apparent language barrier between them and some Cuban doctors. Some persons say that the doctors have difficulties understanding their problems.
A few years ago, it was recognised that our nation has been gripped by a wave of expressions that befit bad manners in our society. The so-called “War on Bad Manners” initiative was immediately launched by the stakeholders.
I believe our people continue along this same path of unsavoury conduct and displays. Bad manners is everywhere and not only in the health system. People are so edgy and always ready to be discourteous if the need arises.
The nurses alone are not to be blamed for this young lady’s death. The entire healthcare system in Guyana needs a serious revamp, immediately!
More Guyanese ought to come forth and speak out at the injustices meted out to them by the public healthcare system. It is only when people stand up for their rights and expose what needs to be exposed then their voices would be heard.
What we as a nation need to see — or rather hear — at this point is no speech that a full investigation would be carried out, and not that the perpetrators would be brought to justice, we want to see action.
We want to see disciplinary actions swiftly taken — not next month or next three months — against those found culpable of this most distressing story.  Not only would Guyanese expect these events to never ever take place or happen again, but we expect a full investigation into the other matters which took place over the past months whereby other women died under questionable circumstances.
Health care facilities are supposed to be where the sick and those who crave for medical attention are supposed to find renewed health, healing, be treated with respect as if they were human beings, and be given the best assistance and services from healthcare “professionals”, (or so I want to think) who are given a monthly salary from the taxes paid by those same persons who require healthcare.
Where  in this day and age does one hear about so many deaths that only keep occurring at the nation’s health care facilities and after all the hype, that these deaths become statistics and are quickly forgotten about?
To whom does the buck stop at Mr, Minister of Health? There must be justice for the family of Esther Dwarka-Bowlin.
Leon Jameson Suseran

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