Medication concerns at Leonora diagnostic Centre gaining RDC’s attention

Oct 16, 2014 News

If the disclosures emanating from the most recent Region Three Health Committee meeting are to be accepted as gospel,

AFC Regional Councillor, Harry Narine Deokinanan

the Leonora Diagnostic Centre is in dire straits.
But although the minutes of the meeting were circulated at a recent statutory meeting of the Region’s Regional Democratic Council (RDC), revealing a number of concerns at the health facility in question, these were certainly not on the agenda for discussion. At least this was the instruction of Regional Chairman, Mr Julius Faerber, during the October 1, 2014, RDC meeting.
This however, did not prevent Alliance for Change (AFC) Regional Councillor, Harry Narine Deokinanan, from highlighting his displeasure in what he classified as “lawlessness of the highest order” at the health facility.
Among the troubling revelations made of the Leonora Diagnostic Centre is that, while adequate medication is procured to facilitate the treatment of patients at the public health facility; there are occasions when these are not readily available to address the needs of patients. In fact, reports coming out of the meeting suggest that there is an existing rift between the administrator of the facility and the doctor in charge, whereby both have reportedly been struggling to maintain control of the medications procured.
According to Deokinanan, while the doctor in charge of the health facility has accused the administration of removing medications without permission, the administrator on the other hand has claimed that he was forced, on occasion, to buy medications to enable the proper treatment of patients as there was no access to the hospital’s store room.
The administrator, Deokinanan has linked this state of affairs to the fact that the keys to the store room housing the medications are not readily made available to those medical officials attending to patients.
At any health facility the dispensing of drugs should be undertaken by a pharmacist (or a health worker directed by a pharmacist) and the Leonora Diagnostic Centre was recently outfitted with a Cuban pharmacist who was recently replaced by another. Currently the health facility also has in place 10 interns and four Government Medical Officers.
But according to the minutes of the Health Committee meeting, the doctor in charge when questioned about the medication status of the health facility, disclosed that the administrator on the evening of Monday September 1, removed medications from the hospital’s Pharmacy without authorisation.
According to Deokinanan, not only does the situation reflects a daunting state of infighting at the health facility, but it further raises suspicions that something corrupt might very well be transpiring there. “If drugs are being removed and not accounted for, this means there is corruption and corruption to the max, and we need to investigate this situation quickly,” said Deokinanan as he sought to highlight the possibility of medications procured for the hospital being resold.
“We don’t know if that is happening…whether person or persons are colluding to resell these drugs purchased by Government to pharmacies…I’m sure there is no special mark to say whether this is so or not but an investigation could definitely help us understand what is really going on,” asserted Deokinanan as he emphasised that any medication being used outside for the purpose of treating patients, is in essence an act of blatant corruption.
Meanwhile, another issue of concern that has been gaining the attention of the RDC, after being brought to the fore by Deokinanan, is that of the non-utilisation of an x-ray facility at the Parika, East Bank Essequibo, Health Centre.
Government about two years ago invested a sizeable sum of money to construct a building dedicated for x-rays at the Parika facility. However, the multi-million dollar structure, which was reportedly constructed by a contractor affiliated to the ruling Administration, has never been used.
And at the recent health committee meeting it was revealed by the Region’s Regional Health Officer, Dr. Nadia Coleman, that the x-ray facility can only become operational after it is certified by the Ministry of Health.
Moreover, it was revealed that a letter was sent to the Ministry through the Regional Executive Officer, Mr Donald Gajraj. But Deokinanan is adamant that “such a process should not have taken so long given the millions that were invested into the x-ray facility.”

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