Doobay Renal centre expansion to target non-communicable diseases

Feb 24, 2013 News

– even as Health Ministry intensifies fight

Although good health care is not lacking in Guyana, ambitious plans are in the pipelines to introduce a health facility which caters to the treatment of a wide range of non-communicable diseases at a greatly subsided cost.

Dr. Budhendranauth Doobay

It is hoped that even patients who are unable to afford good quality medical care can access the facility which is intended to represent an expansion of the service offered by the Doobay Renal Centre at Annandale, East Coast Demerara.
Speaking to media operatives earlier this week, founder of the facility, Canada-based Vascular Surgeon, Dr Budhendranauth Doobay, said that “we want to expand our facility to make it a little hospital here so that we can give affordable care to all Guyanese.”
With specific focus on diabetes, hypertension, stroke and heart diseases, Dr Doobay is confident that the lives of many Guyanese can be saved as all of these conditions can be treated allowing for a better quality of life.
He expressed the view that many Guyanese when diagnosed with a heart condition, for instance, can ill-afford to spend a great deal of money to access the required treatment.
“When a Guyanese suffers from any of these conditions they either have to go and die or pay the very high cost…these require very expensive medical management,” the Vascular Surgeon who has been treating patients with renal failure at the East Coast Demerara facility at arguably the lowest cost in the country.
The renal failure care offered there is supported by expert medical practitioners at the McMaster Medical Centre in Canada who offer their service on a voluntary basis.
“I am hoping that it would be possible for us to get this facility that will be opened to everybody across the country…Even if they don’t have money they must have proper medical care,” stated a very confident Dr Doobay.
Financing for the proposed facility, according to him, will be exclusively through fundraising activities and donations from benefactors some from right here in Guyana and overseas too. In fact, it is on this basis that the operation of the clinic has been premised since it opened its doors during the latter part of 2011.
“We get quite a bit from people; we have our own set of benefactors right here and many others who are helping us out,” Dr Doobay disclosed.
It is however his hope that the efforts to make available an expanded facility to the Guyanese populace that Government will make available subsidies. Once subsidies are made available, particularly for items, such as filters and lines, to facilitate the ongoing dialysis treatment, Dr Doobay is optimistic that the service which is offered at $9,000 per session could be greatly reduced.

The Doobay Renal Centre

“This is what I am hoping for. This is my objective…but at the moment we are begging for money in Canada and we are begging for money here that is the only way we can do it right now…”
The Doobay Renal Centre since its commencement has been seeking to work in close collaboration with the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and has even performed a few of its operations on renal failure patients there.
In its attempt to bolster the relation Dr Doobay disclosed that a total of four (dialysis) machines were donated to the hospital which allowed for the commencement of a dialysis clinic there. It is expected that further collaboration will be realised whereby subsidies and tax breaks will be afforded the Centre.
The expansion plans at the Doobay Centre are being pursued in earnest even as a bold stance is being taken by the Ministry of Health to place high on its agenda plans to address Non- Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
According to Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, during an interview with this publication, this strategic move is aimed at addressing the various forms of cancers, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and chronic pulmonary diseases as well as cataract. He disclosed too that the threats that support or promote these diseases will also be amplified as part of the health sector’s mission to bring health “right down to the community level.”
Minister Ramsaran pointed to the fact that NCDs are usually fostered by the abuse of alcohol, tobacco smoking, sedentary (inactive lifestyles), and bad food choices such as those laden with fat, salt and sugar.
NCD is in fact a medical condition or disease which by definition is non-infectious and non-transmissible between persons. They maybe chronic diseases of long duration and slow progression or they may result in more rapid death and can even lead to sudden stroke.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has outlined that in order to reduce the exposure of populations and individuals to the risk factors for NCDs, there is a dire need for different factions of the society to be considered for action.
Schools, households and communities could play a crucial role, WHO has highlighted, even as health financing is sustained by innovative approaches such as earmarking revenue from alcohol and tobacco taxes.
Policy implementations measures needful to address NCDs could include the protection of people from tobacco smoke, the enforcement of bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; raising of taxes on tobacco and alcohol and restricted access to retailed alcohol and enforcing bans on advertising, according to WHO.
Further still, it has been listed as crucial to promote public awareness about salt intake and salt content of food, the replacement of trans-fat in food with polyunsaturated fat and the promotion of public awareness about diet and physical activity.
It was against this very background that Minister Ramsaran said that “my Ministry is putting on the front burner the fight against the epidemic of NCDs.”