Health centres commissioned at Port Mourant, Angoy’s Avenue

Feb 16, 2013 News

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By Leon Suseran
“The time is now where we have to make sure we minimize our mistakes!” This call was made by Region Six Chairman, David Armogan, speaking specifically about the health sector in that region, whose service delivery has come under heavy criticism over the past weeks.
He was speaking at the commissioning of two new health centres in Berbice, the $9.2M Port Mourant and $5.8M Angoy’s Avenue Health Centres were commissioned by both himself and the Chief Executive Officer of the Berbice Regional Health Authority, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, MP.
A brand-new building was erected at Port Mourant, while extensive modifications were made to an already existing building in Angoy’s Avenue for a health centre there.
Mr. Armogan urged the health care officials in the region to operate at a level of efficiency which is acceptable to the community that we are serving. He stated that a lot of the problem has to do with attitudes and behaviour, and not competence.
“In a few instances, there may be problems with competence, but most of the times, when you find out about people’s dissatisfaction, it has to do with the attitude of our medical personnel, with the way they talk to people, accommodate people, and treat people.
“Unless we change this, and unless some of those people who continue to give the system a bad name, can change their attitude, then we will always be in the media—in the spotlight, and that is why the Minister [of Health] has to go to parliament and answer these questions because of the mistakes that our own people make”.
“We can build all the beautiful health buildings in the world, but what matters at the end of the day, is the level of healthcare that we deliver to the people, who are the recipients of all these things we are doing…we [must[ up the bar and delivery a higher and higher care everyday!”
He did say that a lot of those mistakes are “avoidable”—very simple things can be done, but “we tend to overlook these simple things, and as a result, create big problems in the sector”.
Health mistakes, he posited, cannot be corrected, unlike engineer and other occupational mistakes. “In the health sector, we bury our mistakes, so we cannot make too many mistakes there—it’s a sector that always has to be on the ball and has to be efficient and effective”.
Inasmuch as there are bad comments, he did say that he has heard numerous positive comments about the sector, since the tendency for the bad comments are usually highlighted in the media.
“People got the right to report us when we don’t make them comfortable and happy”, he noted. And people always expect better and the highest performances from the healthcare officials.
“This is the nature of the job you have taken on. Once you come into the health sector, there will always be problems”.
Armogan noted, too, that there is no “perfect health system in the world, whether you go to India, Japan, America, Norway—to wherever—there will always be problems in the health sector, because you cannot make everybody feel good.”
He urged the healthcare officials present at the two commissioning to try their best. “In these trying times and difficult circumstances, I still expect that you will try your best and make sure that every day you come to work ,you give 100 per cent of your energy and your time to make the health sector a better place for all.”
The Port Mourant Health Centre will be serving a very large catchment area on the Lower Corentyne and will provide a quantity of primary healthcare services. Last year, that health centre won the Best Health Centre prize during the Berbice awards ceremony.
The facility, like other primary healthcare facilities, is governed by a Management Committee. Additionally, those in charge of the health centres were challenged by the authorities to start-up kitchen gardens, wherby healthy foods that can aid in the fight of chronic diseases, can be grown, as living examples to persons who will visit those centres, to educate them.
The call was made again for members of the public to first visit the health centres for medical treatment, especially for minor matters, and not overcrowd the public hospital facilities.
And a few miles away at Angoy’s Avenue, the residents there, for the first time in many years, now have their own health centre. That is another large catchment area. The centre will serve an average of 1,500 persons together with the N/A Family Health Centre in the town proper.
The centre was finished about a year ago, but was not commissioned because the building was vandalized some time last year.
The exterior of the building was vandalized. Guttering, plumbing and electrical installations were removed. Angoy’s Avenue, a ‘hot- spot’ for crime, is a squatting area which has not been regularized to this day due to a pending motion by the New Haven Co-op Society, along with a tug-of-war with the Government.
The catchment area for the health centre includes Queenstown and Angoy’s Avenue. Services will include pre and post-natal care; infant and pre-school care, family planning, home visits for defaulters, and blood works.

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