POOR SERVICES CONTINUE IN HEALTH CARE

Nov 04, 2015 Editorial

The problems facing the country’s health care system, especially in the public hospitals and clinics are well known and have continued to affect not the rich but the poor and the working class. The recent death of Liloutie Ramlall and her baby during child birth a few days ago, came on the heels of 17 year Nikacia Allen who died a month after giving birth to her third child.
How could this happen in Guyana in the 21st century? Based on Government statistics, 1400 mothers and babies have died during child birth between 1993 and 2013. While government officials continue to assure the nation that the hospitals are safe, they would often seek medical assistance overseas instead of the public hospitals.
The truth is the services at the public hospitals are so poor that the masses are losing their lives almost every day from simple illnesses. However, the former government has to be blamed for the poor public health care system, which suffers from a chronic shortage of drugs, doctors, nurses; antiquated structures; lack of beds and gross incompetence, not to mention the lack of garbage containers and sanitary supplies. Many have considered the public hospitals as death chambers. The credibility of the government is at stake.
Although the government has been in office for only five months, it cannot overlook the problems at the hospitals. It has to move quickly to staff the hospitals with qualified doctors and skilled medical personnel to halt child birth deaths and other fatalities.
The citizens deserve a better health care system; and they are not satisfied with the snail’s pace of the Ministers of Health to improve the system. That maternal deaths are frequent at the public hospitals is to state the obvious. Only a callous government would allow so many mothers and babies to die during child birth in the 21st century. But at the current pace, it will take several years for the government to reduce maternal deaths and for the nation to have a proper health care system.
There have been numerous complaints by the public about the poor services being offered at the public hospitals but they have fallen on deaf ears. The accusations of negligence, substandard care, scarcity of resources, and lack of beds and equipment are not being looked at holistically and honestly by the present administration.
Press conferences and press releases are only prolonging the problems. Having two Ministers with medical background in charge of the health care system, the people expect solutions.
A national dialogue on the state of health care is urgently needed. The government is obligated to provide proper health care to the nation. The recent upgrades to the health facilities by the previous administration have been woefully inadequate in providing the people with the health services that they deserve.
They have not improved the health care services or the waiting time for patients who must endure long hours before seeing a doctor. Not only are the bathrooms at the public health facilities filthy, but the stench emanating from them is awful. On most days the toilets and sinks are either blocked or have overflowed and nothing is being done to correct this health hazard.
In terms of improving health care, the government has only been making promises; it has not walked the walk. Its good image has been shattered by the 50 percent pay increase, and the poor health care services would only make it worse.
The government has to actively pursue a health care strategy with state-of-the-art services to the people in order to regain their trust. They have to correct the backwardness of the previous government and move beyond their shortsightedness and provide adequate health care to all.
The people deserve better; it is time to stop the pontification. While not much has been done in the last five months to improve health care, the people are suffering, skilled health care personnel are migrating, and lives are being lost. A nation is as healthy as its health care system. A state with a failed health care system is considered a failed state.

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