Latest update February 13th, 2025 4:37 PM
Latest News
- Brutus withdraws second lawsuit filed against the state
- GPHC fires senior doctor over stillbirth
- Despite not paying taxes, Exxon boss says profit sharing and royalty is same as giving Guyana tax
- ExxonMobil makes application for 8th oil project
- After Putin call, Trump says negotiations to end Ukraine war will start ‘immediately’
Increased hospital beds not an indicator of quality health care – APNU+AFC Candidate
“You can’t be satisfied,” said Dr Surendra Persaud, a medical practitioner of several years, as he shared his
Dr Surendra Persaud
conviction of the public health sector.
The doctor’s remarks were solicited by Attorney-at-law and Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram, as he hosted his Talk Show ‘Plain Talk’ Wednesday evening on the Hoyte Blackman Television (HBTV) station (Channel Nine).
Ram kicked off his programme with a segment which focused on the state of the health sector and asked of Dr Persaud “how satisfied are you with the state of the health services in Guyana?”
“I don’t think that there is any person who could say that they are satisfied. We see tremendous disparities when you compare private sector care to public health care; there are disparities,” asserted the medical practitioner in response to Ram.
In fact Dr Persaud pointed out that even when the regional health services is considered in isolation there are glaring disparities.
“When you look from one region to the other there are disparities; as physicians that will always bother us. We go into medicine (and) one of the driving forces is to help people.”
“We don’t see your income statements we see patients, our guiding principle is that we treat everybody and so for many of us, and I think I can say for almost all medical practitioners, we are not happy when we see this disparity,” intimated Dr Persaud in a sombre tone.
However, Ram observed that a number of indicators to measure quality of health services are evident in the local health system such as an increase in the number of hospital beds and the ratio of doctors to patients.
But according to Dr Persaud, there are a number of factors to be taken into consideration. He underscored that there are international bodies, including the United Nations and the Pan American Health Organisation, which have in place markers that are used to follow how a country or a particular hospital is operating.
In Guyana for instance, the medical practitioner explained that health care is examined to ascertain why patients die. In doing this, he said, attention is directed to various groups such as children between the ages of birth and five to determine “why our children die. And there are various other groups (that are taken into consideration during this process). So we know why we (patients) die; it is called the health situation in a country and that is what drives policies.”
This task, according to Dr Persaud, is then followed by efforts to ascertain the cancers and chronic diseases faced by a country and the best way that they can be effectively managed. “That is what determines what the health situation is in a country,” Dr Persaud intimated.
Moreover, he stressed that it is always quality and not quantity that determines the standard of health care that is offered.
“Health care is about the patient. We can put fancy buildings up, but if you don’t have the equipment and you don’t have the properly trained persons, whether it is health care, or whether it is any other environment, it’s not going to work,” the medical practitioner added.
As such he went on to explain that health care is managed by looking at quality assurance and quality measures, and not merely quantity of measures put in place.
Dr Persaud is currently a candidate on the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) list who has a keen interest in improving the level of health care in the public health sector should his party win the national elections.
Ram’s programme, moreover, was focused on the 2015 Elections, which is slated for May 11. He is convinced that the elections is likely to be the most important the country has had to face for several decades.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
An Open Letter to the election observer missions
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News-Later this year, you will arrive in Guyana as protectors of the integrity of our democracy.... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
