Ministers and doctors

Sep 30, 2018 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The past week has seen two senior politicians airing their views on matters of health which are of utmost importance to the entire nation and which is not being given enough attention.
Firstly, in a long letter titled, “Doctors deserve better”, shadow Minister of Health and former Minister in the previous administration, Dr. Frank Anthony went on a history course on the problems affecting the health sector.
“The plethora of problems ranging from shortages of drugs and medical supplies, to prolonged waiting times at public institutions, the working environment and hours of young doctors, the inadequate remuneration given to doctors, nurses and other health care providers and their lack of meaningful representation…” are but a few of the issues raised by Dr. Anthony.
His aim if following the views expressed, is that in the planning of the next budget, these questions were asked and there were answers formulated in the planning of a holistic health approach.
History has a way of revealing and reinventing itself!
On the other hand, the current Ministers of Public Health, The Hon. Volda Lawrence and Hon. Dr. Karen Cummings were busy preaching of grand improvements in the health sector and of plans to further improve the system.
Minister Lawrence in particular currently on a trip to the United States for meetings with World Health Organization and other Health Ministers, and where she was recently nominated to be on the Executive Board of WHO, was lauding recent developments such as the recent signing of a MOU between the governments of Guyana and Austria to further develop our health care services.
Minister Lawrence also took advantage while being in the US to meet various members of the Diaspora where she related the present health initiatives planned for the future and asked for help in getting more initiatives in motion.
Dr. Cummings, meanwhile, recently was speaking on the commencement of five pilot projects in health whereby specific centres will be going fully digital in terms of services utilizing ICT.
Critical in all the speeches given were the importance of the youths in our public service system and the need to further improve their educational levels and professionalism, and our need to “keep them”. Minister Lawrence constantly referenced her important “cadre” of young doctors at her side brimming with enthusiasm to do more.
Mr. Editor, the question I ask now is: Are we doing enough to keep our young professionals like our doctors, nurses, medical technologists, teachers, engineers, agronomists and others?
Dr. Anthony went into a breakdown of the salaries on offer for our young doctors at GPHC and I shudder to compare them to those on offer from our sister CARICOM countries. They simply cannot compare and no wonder we will continue to lose our youngest and brightest minds.
The salaries on offer from the MOPH are even worse, with their allowances archaic, such as the $600 Housing allowance, the $1800 on-call for 24 hrs, travelling allowance of $3500, no risk allowance, no Hinterland allowance nor adequate telephone or gas allowances for realizing the government’s work.
These allowances and salaries have been around since the early 90s and the governments (both past and previous) saw neither need nor urgency in changing same.
Dr. Anthony therefore has no right to criticize what is on offer since he was an instrumental part of why things are as they currently stand. Furthermore given his involvement in not only health issues but in the functioning of health related bodies such as the horrendous Medical Council of Guyana of which he is an integral member and the non functional Guyana Medical Association, Dr Anthony surely has had many chances to impact the health landscape and improve the lives of young doctors. The dealings of the Medical Council, which has become a political tool and which has been called into question many times by various persons for their inability to perform theirs designated tasks with efficacy and transparency should be reason enough for Dr. Anthony and company to perform introspective evaluations and do the honorable thing in stepping aside and allowing caring persons to take those leadership positions.
But, would the good doctor step aside?
Would the good doctor take young doctors under his wings in his private clinic to help to improve their knowledge and skill levels? We all know the answer. Stop blowing your ‘vuvuzela’ Dr. Anthony, this noise is just election gimmick.
With regard to Minister Lawrence and her travels both locally and internationally, it may be all in good stead or as I personally see it; her focus perhaps is misdirected in this critical moment. The most important resource of any country is your human resource and this we try to keep at all costs where possible.
Why would the honorable minister therefore speak of providing facilities for the training of nurses for future exportation to first world countries? Did she honestly believe herself or was it a slip of the tongue? Where in the annals of history has it been proven to be cost effective for small, poor, developing countries to invest unavailable resources for the betterment of other richer countries? We currently have great shortages in staffing our centres yet here we are speaking of sending the little we have in the hope of getting remittances from “forty Western Unions”.
A few years ago, something unprecedented was realized. The PPP government and former President Bharrat Jagdeo in particular was able to persuade President Fidel Castro to give Guyana the chance to train approximately 1500 youths in areas such as Health, Agriculture, Engineering, Arts etc.
These young persons were selected and went to study in Cuba free of cost to return to serve their country for a mandatory 5-year period.
One would expect that by the end of that 5-year period the government would have put things in place for those professionals to want to continue to serve in Guyana. The sad truth is that no such plan was put in place.
Instead, each year we continue to lose our professionals to the wider world.
This year 2018 approximately 250 doctors came to the end of their 5-year contract.
A conservative estimate is that maybe 100 did not sign on back to work with the government. Currently the health facilities are facing a dilemma- shortage of doctors.
The Minister chose not to let the public know of this development but it is evident in all regions. The hardest hit will be the interior regions firstly since the appeal to work there is almost nil given mitigating factors.
The constant calls of those young (forever-acting) Regional Health Officers for doctors is loud to those with ears.
No longer can the Director of Regional and Health Services bully young doctors into sending them to the bush against their will. Finally, young doctors can choose where they want to work. Just recently, the MOPH requested from GPHC 40 doctors to help fill the void in the Public Health System left by vacating doctors, with luck they might get 20 since GPHC is already understaffed.
No more big batches of graduates are there to replace those leaving. The current class of graduates numbers a meager 15. Who will replace the 74 trained, experienced nurses leaving soon? And next year, it will be even worse!
It is hard to be a politician and at the same time pay adequate attention to what matters the most, but to those in leadership positions I beg of you, please listen to your young professionals.
Give them what is due.
Improved salaries, improved working conditions, adequate overtime compensation, training opportunities, housing facilities and the opportunity to own their own houses, transportation allowances and duty free concessions to be able to own their own means of transportation, improved packages for those serving in hinterland and interior regions (cost of living is much higher), risk allowances, adequate vacation allowances, opportunities to get no/low interest loans to be able to start a family life, ease of access to government services, revamped personnel and Human Resources Departments in Government Institutions that take forever to get anything done, adequate safety in the work environment and opportunities to further their professional and personal careers. These are but a few and with the coming bonanza, there are so many more areas that should be created and/or improved. Guyanese are willing to stay and serve but there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
The ball is in your court ministers (both past and present) of the Government of Guyana.
Today is the day to step up and be counted. Get those policies in parliament quickly and come to an agreement for the mutual development of Guyana. Get the legislature amended to adequately enforce health policies of the 21st century. The time of the slow and sleepy is over. Let the voice of the youths be at the forefront. Let collective minds across the divide give input on how to better address our current problems since it’s a problem of all. Stop getting race involved in every decision.
Open your eyes and listen to the winds of change. Stop humming and not coming.
John Snow

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