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More mental health doctors needed – Dr. Ramsammy

Jan 15, 2014 News

 

Mental health is generally ignored by countries worldwide with this country being no exception. In Guyana, there is a need for more psychiatrists and trained professionals in this regard to diagnose and treat mental health patients.
This assertion was made by former Health Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy during a brief interview with this publication yesterday.
Whilst acknowledging that the National Psychiatric Hospital, New Amsterdam, has one psychiatrist, Dr. Ramsammy said having two psychiatrists at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) is necessary because most acute cases visit that facility.
GPHC acts a holding facility for patients for between 24 hours and 48 hours where they are given medication. If the patients need long term treatment they are transferred to the National Psychiatric Hospital.
In August 2008, a patient set the GPHC’s psychiatric ward on fire. That ward was never rebuilt.
According to Ramsammy, generally no hospital is geared towards long-term treatment for mental health patients. During his tenure as Health Minister, moves were being made to equip Regional hospitals to provide short term care for patients.
In fact, General Medical Practitioners were being trained to assist with patients. However, he is unaware if this is still being perused. He said that professionals in this field are very difficult to recruit worldwide and not only in Guyana. As such, training the medical minds available would have provided some form of relief.
Dr. Ramsammy said that there is a shortage of psychiatrists and psychologists in the Caribbean. He said that when Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases were brought under the spotlight in 2011 at the United Nations, mental health was omitted.

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