Latest update June 15th, 2026 1:01 AM
Situation at GPHC an affront to women
Dear Mr. Editor,
Kindly permit me the use of your daily to bring to the attention of the relevant authorities a situation in urgent need of their attention.
It was while visiting my relative, who at the time of writing was a patient of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, that I became aware of a situation which I was told is not new.
I was standing in the prenatal section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, idly looking around the ward, when I saw two women lying on one of the hospital beds.
My first thought was whether one of them was a visitor and the other a patient and if so, how come she’s lying on the bed with the patient. So I looked closer and it was then that I made an amazing and disturbing discovery.
I realised that both of these women were patients, both were very pregnant nearing delivery and they were both forced to share the same bed, and just to ensure there’s no ambiguity, by bed I really mean cot.
To say that I was shocked is the understatement of the millennium. My question, Mr. Editor, is this. How in this twenty first century, in this Guyana of Prados and Pradovilles and Marriots, can something like this go on unchecked? Wait! There’s more. When I voiced my concern to those close to me, I was told that (1) . That’s not the only bed being shared at the moment; there are other beds with two patients being made to share. (2) Upstairs in post natal there are beds being shared by mothers and their newborn, with one mother just deciding to sit all night in a chair so that her baby can lie on the bed occupied by the other mother and her newborn.
As I stood there watching these two medium built women with their pregnant stomachs high in the air lying with their feet at each other’s heads, with only their upper bodies resting on the cot, a couple of things came to my mind. I thought, surely the administration must not be aware of this, after all, this must be the only reason why something as atrocious and dehumanising as this is allowed to persist.
Was this someone’s way of reminding these women of their lot in life? That it is because they can’t afford better; that’s why they are there having to endure situations such as this. I really don’t think they need reminding.
As a woman and a Guyanese, I am asking the relevant officials to address this situation with utmost urgency. If it is a case where there is no more space in the ward to fit more beds, then build another ward. We have the money in the state treasury. I truly believe that this situation is an embarrassment to us all.
That it has been allowed to go on for so long is an indictment to our national conscience. These women are in that institution to deliver babies not to ‘drop’ piglets or puppies.
We women and mothers are the doorways through which the next generation of builders and shapers of this nation must come. Surely better can be done for us.
Mrs. Candice Pyle
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