Where are the doctors?

Aug 18, 2012 Editorial

By now, the largest batch of Cuban-trained doctors should have arrived in Guyana. The country was expecting some 250 of them by this month, rounding off the initial wave that went to Cuba on a programme brokered between President Bharrat Jagdeo and Cuban President Fidel Castro more than a decade ago.
These doctors, when fully trained (and that means after they would have completed their internship here in Guyana) should be more than enough to satisfy the nation’s health care needs. It would be interesting to see the total numbers of these doctors who should have boosted the ranks.
There was a time when doctors were not in any significant numbers. The main referral hospital, the Georgetown Public Hospital, was barely able to provide the service needed. People complained that they would have to wait at the Accident and Emergency Unit for hours before they could access any medical service.
It was not uncommon to hear people complain about going to the hospital and failing to see a doctor. In the face of this shortage, a number of private medical institutions sprang up and continue to thrive to this day.
There were rural clinics back then, mostly staffed by nurses, to cater for the minor ailments, particularly those suffered by children and pregnant women. Sometimes these clinics would get a visit from a doctor once a fortnight, but the number of patients often placed a strain on these doctors that they were reduced to dispensing some over-the-counter medicines.
In cases where the ailments were very serious, such patients were transferred to the main hospital, often too late for anything to be done to their condition. This should change dramatically. There should be more than enough doctors to staff these outlying clinics.
We know that there is a greater presence of doctors at the regional hospitals, but the rate of referrals still causes concern. One is left to wonder whether the desire to have more doctors stopped at the level of having them trained. Facilities need to be in place to have these doctors perform to their maximum.
Just recently the media had cause to report on the woeful state of the West Demerara Regional Hospital. Nurses complained about the physical conditions which they said actually posed a threat to their safety.
There were similar complaints from other hospitals. When confronted, the Minister of Health would either deny the existence of those conditions or would say that rehabilitative works are in progress. The sums of money spent on these hospitals are large, and one would expect that they would be in better condition.
We do know that millions of dollars are spent on the necessary drugs, but again we must question the procurement of these drugs and even their distribution. A few months ago when Kaieteur News focused on the cost of procuring some of these drugs, there was a hue and cry about the newspaper attacking something that did not exist.
To his credit, the Minister of Health did confirm that some of the drugs were sold to the government for as much as one hundred times the cost at source. To justify this, the supplier merely said that he fixed his price, and that it was for the government to refuse and to seek other suppliers.
Some doctors and even nurses would complain about shortage of drugs at their facilities. Investigations often revealed that someone was tardy with satisfying the requests. The result was that large quantities remained in the bids and had to be destroyed at great cost to the taxpayer.
Be those things as they may, one is still keen to know whether the nation has the number of doctors needed to provide basic medical care across the country. We see the large numbers of people who flock the various medical missions. When questioned, these people would talk about the cost of seeking medical help at the hospitals and of not getting the kind of attention they think they deserve.
As a source, the media could check with the Guyana Medical Council, but that body seems hard-pressed to keep track of the doctors on its register. Instead, the Ministry of Health should publish the names of its doctors and the clinics and hospitals to which they are assigned.

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Where are the doctors?

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