Ministry belatedly approves funding for kidney failure patients

Feb 21, 2018 News

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A decision by the Ministry of Public Health to withhold financial support to two kidney failure patients has been rescinded.
The two patients, 28-year-old Richard Manpersaud of Campbellville, Georgetown, and 17-year-old Rovin Sohan of Bushlot, Berbice, were initially denied financial support from the Ministry to facilitate cross-matching tests to allow them to have kidney transplant surgeries.
As a result, the Transplant Surgeon at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC] was able to ensure that the surgery dates [February 19 and 20] allotted to the patients were utilised.
Reports suggest that following the publication of an article on the plight of the two patients in this newspaper, they were called in by Ministry officials, during which they were informed of the Ministry’s decision to give them financial support, although this was previously denied.
This was in addition to an apology for the ordeal they endured when they visited the Ministry earlier this year to solicit the funding, which amounted to just about $1 million each.
The financial support from the Ministry was intended to help facilitate cross-matching tests at the University of Miami in the United States. Cross-matching tests are required to ensure that identified donors are compatible with the recipients to facilitate organ transplant surgeries.
Kidney failure patients have shared with this publication that although the cross-matching service is available at a local facility, it is less costly at the University of Miami.
Since the patients did not have the financial wherewithal to do the tests even at the cheaper cost, they sought assistance from the Ministry.
Although Manpersaud was last year able to finance earlier tests – through fundraising activities – that should have seen his surgery completed since last year, his donor developed health problems which caused him to become unsuitable for surgery. Moreover, Manpersaud, whose condition had worsened, was forced to join Sohan to solicit support from the Ministry.
This publication had reported how senior Ministry officials failed to recognise as authentic, documents presented by the patients to allow them to benefit from financial support.
Moreover, not only were ranks of the Guyana Police Force called in to take the patients into custody then, but they were forced to remain at the Brickdam Police Station for several hours to answer questions about documents they presented as proof of their respective health issues. They were both eventually released on $10,000 bail which the patients were hoping to have returned to them, since they committed no crime.
This publication was privy to documents that were signed or stamped, complete with letter-heads that were presented by the patients to Ministry officials, similar to what have been presented by other patients in the past.
A copy of a letter from the GPHC, seen by this publication, outlined the type of procedure required, and the facility at which it would be done. Also stated in that correspondence was the fact that the tests cannot be done at the GPHC.
The patients had told this publication that they were especially surprised by the Ministry’s reaction, since the letter from the GPHC was affixed with the GPHC’s Kidney Transplant Department/Dialysis Centre stamp, with Dr. Kishore Persaud’s [the Transplant Surgeon’s] name at the bottom.
A letter from the University of Miami which was also presented to Ministry officials, was channelled through the GPHC, and was signed by a Ms. Nicole A. Lergier, Director of Business Operation, University of Miami Transplant Laboratories.
Even so, officials at the Ministry, this publication understands, had concerns about the authenticity of the documents. Also, suspicions were spiked by the Ministry’s thorough due diligence process.
In fact, because of perceived discrepancies that have been unearthed, as a result of due diligence, investigations have been ongoing to ensure that all documents for such matters are passed through the correct channels.
As such, it might have been a case of miscommunication or perhaps an error in judgement, although officials of the Ministry are insisting that no mistake was made on their part when attending to the patients.
This publication has learnt, too, that an investigation is ongoing, with the view of ensuring that an improved system is in place to better manage the transplant programme, and by extension, ensure that no patient, in the future, encounters challenges similar to those experienced by Manpersaud and Sohan.
According to information filtered to this newspaper, a decision was taken to grant the patients funding for their tests, amidst the investigation, since it was recognised that any breakdown in the process was no fault of theirs. According to a reliable source, “the Ministry had to go ahead and give the support to these patients, because there is no way the lives of patients should be in jeopardy because of such a situation.”

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