Praise and criticism of the eye clinic at Georgetown Hospital

Aug 23, 2017 Letters

---

Dear Editor,
Please allow me some space to recount my experiences at the Eye Clinic at the GPHC. Sometime in March there was a week long Glucoma screening at the GPHC. Since it was free, my daughter advised me to go and get the screening. After a long wait, I answered to my name and was taken into a room. I felt blessed to be asked to fit my chin in some sort of medical contraption while looking into a light and be told, “look to the left, now look at me” by the doctor.
I was told by Dr. Sarju that my eyes were OK except for a growth in the right eye and I could leave it as it is or have it surgically removed. I told her that I want it removed; she wrote something on a paper and directed me with same to a registration room where I was given a card dated the 28th April for my next appointment.
On April 28th after minor examination, Dr. Sarju told me that my surgery would be done on the 10th August but I would have to come the day before for a check up. On Wednesday August 9th, I was there at 5:30 am. I was about to take a seat when a lady who was already seated there told me that I had to collect a number from the girl at the desk. When I had walk passed her seconds earlier she had looked at me as if I was alien.
I went to her, “Can I have a number please.”She replied; “Next time you come here always remember to collect a number,” as if she was seeing me for the first time. I would like to suggest that a little sign such as; “EYE CLINIC-COLLECT A NUMBER HERE” be placed on her desk because when the date clerk arrived there were two elderly men who were there early and did not have numbers. They were only able to keep their positions when a line was formed based on the numbers because four persons that came early vouched for them.
By 10 am I was already weighed in and had my blood pressure tested as normal-having double up on my medication earlier. I was to be at 6:30 the following morning. By 7 am on Thursday a batch of about 25 of us were well suited up in surgical gowns and ready inside “vision room.” The names of seven persons were called and they were led upstairs while the rest of us were told to be seated in the waiting area. Around 9:30 another six were called and led away-by 1130 the rest of us were led to a waiting room in close proximity to the operating room.
At 1:30p.m I was the last eye patient left for surgery in the waiting room. From 7 am to 1:30pm I had already visited the washroom in my gown twice on the bottom floor and I was ready to go again but could not find the washroom on the second floor. Five minutes later my name was called so I went to surgery with a filled bladder. I am of the opinion that some of us could have been told to come at 11a.m. Dr. Hinds did my surgery.
It lasted about five minutes-somewhere between I could recall her asking me to say if I was feeling pain as she requested that I keep my eyes steady. By that time, I was in pain from my extended bladder and the scraping of my eyes-I felt as if I was drowning in my tears which seems to have accumulated in my throat-too afraid to complain. I now have an extended check up date. I would like to thank Drs. Hinds and Sarju and all their support staff (nurses) on behalf of myself and all the patients who did eye surgery on the 10th August 2017. You guys are doing a wonderful job at the eye clinic!
The poor should always be grateful to the State (not the Government) for the “eye clinic” because a surgery such as I had is capped at about $300,000 at the private hospitals. The Government which administers the state apparatus recently on the issue of the tobacco bill said that it is more concerned about the nation’s health than with the concerns of the tobacco company in relation to the tobacco bill. The tobacco company proclaims its yearly contribution in taxes to be 4 billion and as such deserves a hearing -government remains adamant. In my Zen moment, I see the government by putting Vat on private education and expanding the tax base on previously Vat free items has increased the cost of living thereby increasing the stress on all the people.
This increased stress is causing more health related issues than first and second hand smoke from tobacco. In my sojourn at the GPHC I have not seen any sign marked “stress clinic”- there is no medication for stress. In an effort to curb stress people tend to gravitate to psychoactive substances (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana) which will contribute to more collateral damage to the nation’s health. In this scenario the Government is more of a leviathan- eating away at the sinews of the nation’s health than the tobacco company it seemed intent on criminalizing.
Rudolph Singh

---

---