Special hospital day to be set aside for disabled persons

Jan 13, 2011 News

A special day will be set aside at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to address the medical concerns of persons living with disabilities, said Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy.
This move, he said, will come as part of a programme specifically designed for the operation of a vehicle which was procured by the Ministry of Health to transport persons with disability to access social services.
The vehicle which was procured at an approximate cost of $18M by the Ministry last year was intended to ferry disabled persons around the city at no cost to them. But although the National Commission on Disability was mandated to control the operation of the vehicles Minister Ramsammy said that the entity currently does not have sufficient resources to undertake this task fully and thus remains dependent on the Ministry’s support.
“They don’t have the resources to operate it, that is, the driver, gas and so forth, so we are providing that so that the people can access this service.”
However, the Minister noted that the Commission has been charged with putting together a programme for the effective operation of the vehicle. “They are doing that now but what they need to do, because it is meant to support disabled persons for their social services such as hospital and pension collection, the Commission has to ensure that the vehicle does not have to move around three or four times a day or every day.”
With a programme in place, the Minister noted that a specific day will be set for persons to access medical services and doctors will have to assign such days for patients’ follow-up care.
The move to procure the vehicle came as a fulfilment of a promise made by the Minister a few years ago to address the transportation needs of disabled persons in recognition of the fact that regular public transportation would tend not to accept disabled persons as passengers.
As a result many were left to solicit other means of getting to their respective destinations.
“We bought this special vehicle that has no seats other than the driver’s seat. This vehicle is to accommodate persons in wheelchairs and operates with a lift to facilitate their entry and exit. They will be strapped into the bus to ensure their safety while being transported,” according to the Minister.
However, he acknowledged that since the vehicle will not be adequate to ferry disabled persons countrywide, it would be centered in Georgetown in anticipation of additional vehicles being procured. “While we are trying to build a fleet we will have to decide when the bus will work because we cannot take care of all of their (disabled persons) everyday business…We will only be able to facilitate things such as taking them to hospital. So we will be working in collaboration with the hospital to facilitate non-emergency trips and with the Human Services Ministry for those who get assistance from there.”
It was since 2008 the Minister had expressed concern over the fact that persons living with disabilities are often stigmatised and discriminated against by operators within the transportation services.
In fact, he had revealed his opinion that the operators of minibuses and taxis are guilty of stigmatising and discriminating against disabled persons.
“I am being open and blunt by saying this but it is an open case of stigma and discrimination,” the Minister asserted.
As a result, he had endeavoured to invoke consultations between the Permanent Secretary of his Ministry and Chairperson of the National Disability Commission to foster some sort of agreement with operators through the Minibus Association.

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