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NGO flies in $4B in urgent drugs to Health Ministry

May 12, 2017 News

Following reports of shortages in the drug supply system at the Ministry of Public Health, the Guyana Medical Relief of Los Angeles, California, has sourced and was able to supply US$20,861,594 ($4.1B) in value of meds to the Ministry.
This was disclosed by Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Guyana Medical Relief (GMR), Sharir Chan.
These meds, including the asthma medication, Albuterol Sulfate, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, simvastatin, niacin, carvedilol, amlodipine, lovastatin, azithromycin, glipizide, Lisinopril, metformin, all touched down at Timehri Airport around April 20th, 2017.
“We, at the request of the MMU (Materials Management Unit) in Diamond, have shipped these medications to the Ministry of Public Health, after recognizing the dire need for such. We air shipped these with the hope that they will be immediately utilized.”
According to GMR, the meds were air shipped because of their immediate need. Chan stated that his NGO has been operating in Guyana for the past 32 years and during this time, GMR has had to inject meds as needed and as supplies are available.
“We are delighted to be able to serve our people and to assist any way we can. Thanks to our partner, Direct Relief, we were able to quickly source these requested meds for Guyana.”
“This emergency shipment of medications arrived in Guyana since April 20th and is yet to be distributed. Guyana Medical Relief has made this consignment to the Ministry of Health which in turn distributes this to the various regions as needed. This consignment was requested by the Ministry in light of the reports of shortage of drugs in the health system. Guyana Medical Relief looks forward to sending more shipments of pharmaceuticals if requested.”
In addition to supplying medications and medical supplies, GMR has built VIA clinics to combat the spread of cervical cancer among Guyana’s women.
VIA (Visualization in Acetic Acid), is a relatively inexpensive way to detect the presence of lesions that can lead to cervical cancer. If positive signs are indicated during such tests, treatment is immediately provided to the patient. VIA clinics were built in Mahaicony, Charity and Bartica Hospitals.
In 2015, Guyana Medical Relief completely refurbished the Accident and Emergency Unit at the Port Mourant Hospital, providing the community with a modern unit.
“This organization has also donated ultrasound machines to Baramita in Region 1, Port Mourant and Mahaicony Hospitals in Regions 6 and 5 respectively,” the NGO said in a statement.
A major cornerstone of GMR’s work is to provide shoes to needy children in Guyana, especially those in the hinterland communities. To date, it has provided over 250,000 pairs of shoes to communities throughout Guyana, especially focusing on Regions 7, 8 and 9.
According to Chan, GMR has been instrumental in assisting the immediate needs of the communities in Guyana, with the idea that long term physical infrastructure needs to be put in place for alleviation of these current needs. As such GMR, in addition to satisfying the immediate needs for meds, has constructed buildings to affect the long term care of Guyanese.
“We also recognize the need for collaboration amongst like-minded NGO’s and as such we have partnered with outreach missions, such as The Canada Guyana Outreach Mission (CanGo), based in Toronto, doing work in the Pomeroon areas in Region 1 and 2, and The Guyana Medical Mission led by Dr. Cort of Fyrish, in Region 6, to bring professional assistance to Guyana’s rural population.”
The organization said it is also working to provide a sense of permanence to these outreach missions so that the population from these villages can have virtual access to doctors from North America via their Community Health Workers.
In recent months, there have been complaints of drug shortages at a number of the state’s hospitals and health centers. It was found that because of a loose system, officials were not ordering on time.
Health officials discovered a significant amount of drugs were also being stolen and sold to private pharmacies in a racket that has cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Guyana has introduced new systems to ensure transparency in the drug purchasing process for its institutions, but the complaints have continued of wrongdoing.
Audits have revealed that proper records were not being kept. This year, an estimated $28B was allocated to the health sector. In 2014, purchases of drugs for health centres and hospitals were around $5B (US$25M).

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