Does dying come easily at the Georgetown Public Hospital?

May 11, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I will say at the start of the description of this story that Mike Khan, CEO of the Georgetown Public Hospital and Matron Audrey Corey were very helpful to the patient. I called both Mr. Khan and Matron Corey to help and they did. But these nice people cannot do anything to stop the mess at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The problem is a structural one. The problem lies in central government spending. The problem lies in management science.
At 17:00 hours (5 p.m.) on Tuesday, the 14-year-old daughter of AFC executive member, Michael Carrington, could not walk because an excruciating pain attacked the right side of her abdominal region. He took her to A&E at the Georgetown Public Hospital. At 18:00 hours, I reached the Georgetown Hospital accompanied by Cindy Sookdeo, the Secretary of the Region Five group of the AFC.
Carrington told me that after an hour, she was still to be seen. I have had an over-abundance of horrifying experiences with one of life’s hell holes named the Accident and Emergency Department of the Georgetown Hospital in a country named Guyana.
I knew that little girl would be in danger if I didn’t move quickly. I called Mike Khan. At 20:00 hours we were sent to the Out-Patient section which closes at that time. We barely got in. At 21:00 hours, the doctor at Out-Patient sent us back to A&E. The problem was that Out-Patient has no machines to diagnose if it was appendicitis. At 22:00 hours, the patient was sent for blood tests and a urine test, the latter costing $240.
Cindy Sookdeo left at that time. I remained. It was no point staying because other patients told us that the tests would not be ready in less than three hours. The next morning at 01:00 hrs, Michael Carrington rang me at home to say that the tests were still not available. And they were still there sitting on the bench with the little girl enduring her pain. From 17:00 hrs (5 p.m.) the previous day to 01:00 hrs (1 a.m.) the next day, no doctor at the Georgetown Hospital could determine what was wrong with this little girl. And no machine was available to ascertain if the cause was the appendix.
At 02:00 hrs (2 a.m.) on Wednesday, Michael Carrington left the Georgetown Hospital with his daughter the way they came in at 17.00 hours, the previous day. The doctor advised Carrington that he must have his daughter take an ultra sound at a private institution and take the film back to A&E.
My first question to Carrington was; “Did this doctor tell you who to go to and where and when after you arrive at the Georgetown Hospital?” His answer was he was told about an ultra sound examination to see if it is appendicitis.
Michael Carrington had to take his daughter back home deep on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway at 2 a.m., with a terrible pain in her side. After nine hours at the Georgetown Hospital, that institution had no machine to ascertain if this child’s appendix had ruptured. This child went back home on the Linden Highway with the pain.
Any schoolboy will tell you that modern medicine is now a machine-based science. Once you are wheeled into a hospital, the machines are placed all over you. At the Georgetown Hospital in the year 2012, a poor patient can only know if she is suffering from appendicitis if her father pays for an ultra sound examination at a private hospital.
Why then did they keep her for nine hours? Why did Out-Patient send her back to A&E when the doctor there knew that since appendicitis was suspected the Georgetown Hospital couldn’t do anything about its detection? Why didn’t A&E tell her father that they did not have the facilities to search for a swollen appendix?
This is the way poor people are treated at the Georgetown Hospital. This is the state of modern medicine at the Georgetown Hospital. This is yet another column from me on the horror stories at the Georgetown Hospital. But nothing changes at the Georgetown Hospital. Carrington was just told to have his daughter do an ultra sound.
There was no bureaucratic procedure in place to facilitate Carrington the next day when he would have taken the ultra sound results back. Carrington would have had to join a line with two hundred persons and wait to explain to a clerk why he was there. This is exactly what happened. The Georgetown Hospital does not practice scientific management. I guess you just die at the Georgetown Hospital.

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Does dying come easily at the Georgetown Public Hospital?

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