Helping to provide optimal health care to the nation… Chronic Diseases Coordinator, Dr. Kavita Singh, is a ‘Special Person’

Feb 09, 2020 News, Special Person

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“I want to be able to contribute to a health care sector that will provide for me when I am old and retired. I want to be able to look back and be satisfied that I have made our people happier and healthier. I want to know that I have used my talent and knowledge to be productive in a positive way. Most of all, I want to be part of the plan that ensures optimal health care for all Guyanese.”

By Sharmain Grainger

Although she is convinced that each person has the responsibility to define his or her own destiny by making some key decisions, Dr. Kavita Singh is well aware that there could be many influencing factors along life’s journey that could help to redefine one’s focus. She certainly has an appreciation for this as she was encouraged to become a medical professional by two of the most influential people in her life – her parents.

But by virtue of being born and raised in a modern age whereby medical professionals no longer have to settle to save one person at a time, Dr. Singh has assumed a role that sees her helping to make a difference at a national level.
“Saving lives one at a time just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to be able to do the same thing on a larger scale, so I was very happy when the opportunity to work in policy became available,” said Dr. Singh during a recent interview.
In fact she confidently revealed, “I want to be able to contribute to a health care sector that will provide for me when I am old and retired. I want to be able to look back and be satisfied that I have made our people happier and healthier. I want to know that I have used my talent and knowledge to be productive in a positive way. Most of all, I want to be part of the plan that ensures optimal health care for all Guyanese.”
Her passion to carve out a better and healthier existence for the nation is but one of her most outstanding traits that allowed for her to be easily nominated as our ‘Special Person’ of the week.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Born at the Georgetown Public Hospital to parents Roopnarine Singh, a Medex who later became a doctor, and Lakrajie Singh, a staff nurse/midwife, Dr. Singh told of spending the first nine years of her life in a little village called Cane Grove on the East Coast of Demerara. Many memories were made in the adjoining living quarters of the Cane Grove Health Centre that her family, which included an older sister, now Dr. Noshella M. Singh and a younger brother, now Dr. Rajiv B. Singh, called home.
As a young girl, our ‘Special Person’ attended Virginia Nursery School, then Virginia Primary, both at Cane Grove, before she moved to Helena Primary at Mahaica. She later secured a place at The Bishops’ High School where she remained until completing upper sixth form.

As a young girl, her favourite pastime was reading, but she admitted her days were laced with “a bit of everything, including getting into mischief with my friends…but nothing that got the teachers’ attention. I was a good girl at school.” In fact, she recalled that for most of her secondary school life she was always the youngest in class, and was therefore always treated as the baby.
BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL
Today, Dr. Singh has morphed into a medical professional who fully understands the importance of saving lives, and this she owes to her upbringing, with parents who she grew up seeing directing a great deal of their time and energies towards the medical field.
“My parents are the most humble people I know, yet today I am still being addressed as ‘Doc’s or Nurse’s daughter’ although I have followed in their footsteps,” shared Dr. Singh, as she recalled the influence to become a doctor was very real.
“My mom always told us to use our hands to heal and do only good. I wanted to continue in the legacy they created to make people’s live better, and to be able to contribute meaningfully to society and my country as they did.”

Unlike her parents, her platform is understandably farther reaching. But Dr. Singh did not recognize this when her professional life started to unfold.
“I never planned to work behind a desk. I never planned to write policies or prepare national budgets. I wanted to become a forensic pathologist. I used to go to the mortuary during my summer holidays with the late Dr. Leslie Mootoo when I was just 15 years old. I still believe pathologists are the most brilliant doctors and the coolest,” she said.
While she may not consider as “cool”, the role she has been playing for the past six years as the Coordinator of the Ministry of Public Health’s Chronic Diseases Department, it is certainly one that has been helping her to realise her goal of helping to improve health care on a national scale.
It was quite a journey to get to where she is today. She served as Government Medical Officer and Regional Health Officer of Region Five, before assuming the role at the Ministry, which includes being the focal point for Tobacco Control, and Violence and Injuries. She currently serves as the Secretary for the National Tobacco Control Council and is the ex-officio member of the National Commission on Prevention and Control of Non Communicable Diseases.

Dr. Singh was initiated into the medical field when she opted to study human medicine and clinical surgery [MD] at the Instituto Superior De Ciencias Médicas, in Camaguey, Cuba. She also completed her Master’s in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, United Kingdom, and is currently a candidate of the Global Tobacco Control Programme at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
IMPORTANT ROLE
As she considered the importance of her role, Dr. Singh intimated, “Lives depend on the decisions that are taken and the work that is done through my office. This is where our role influences how healthy Guyana should be. Our office has faced numerous criticisms, but we just use those to improve what we do.”
The implementation and enforcement of the Tobacco Control Act 2017 continues to be one of the most important mandates of the department she heads. As such, Dr. Singh added, “As much as we are ridiculed for taking certain decisions, we understand how public health can be affected if we don’t. While the Ministry continues to do many great things, we live in a world where we are often judged based on what we are not doing.”
“The programme managers at the Ministry of Public Health are some of the most innovative people you will ever encounter. It is impossible that we will get all the resources we need to do all the things that we have to do, so sometimes it’s really hard to prioritize, because we are not just considering one person but an entire nation. Our role as public health specialists is to ensure that the paradigms of public health remain equal as much as it can, and we do know where we have work to do, and really welcome public/private partnerships and social platforms that will help us to overcome our hurdles,” said Dr. Singh.

Even though she may be the professional helping to steer things along, Dr. Singh has ascertained that “The burden of health in our country will remain the responsibility of every person who lives here. We all have our respective roles to execute, from adopting healthy lifestyles, to ensuring annual wellness checkups and motivating other people to do the same.”
As part of the process, she added, “It is the responsibility of the citizens of this country to hold us health care providers accountable for the services we offer, including calling on us to develop, implement and enforce legislation which will encourage healthier lifestyles.”
INGRAINED APPRECIATION
Dr. Singh has an ingrained appreciation for the colossal task entrusted upon her. So, it should come as no surprise that her days often start very early and end with her preparing for the next.
As part of her work, she is responsible for planning and executing training programmes, ensuring that inspections are carried out, protocols are reviewed and that ‘checks and balances’ happen. For her too, meeting with the public is inevitable.
Catering to the needs of Type one diabetic patients, developing policies, reporting, designing surveys, data entry, data analysis, fostering collaborations, etc., also help to make up her elaborate job description.
“Depending on the mode of the day, it’s usually meetings both in and out of office, training activities, medical outreaches and supervisory visits. There is, quite frankly, no typical day at work. As such, there is no specific time that I usually leave work either, but I try to be out of office by 6 pm most days,” said Dr. Singh, who is somehow able to set aside time for a family of her own.
She is wife to Ajay Singh, a Consultant Electrical Engineer, and mother to three children – Suhanna, 10, Shiloh, 5, and Sofia, 2, – whom she described as “absolutely amazing children”. In fact, Dr. Singh made it pellucid that her greatest achievements in this life are “The three little people who call me mommy.”
To ensure that her family members get the attention they deserve, Dr. Singh tries, as far as possible, to dedicate her weekend to them. But even this can be consumed at times with the magnitude of work she is mandated to do.
“Weekends are for preparing for the week ahead, but thankfully my parents are always there to step in when I am unable to. We ensure that we go on family getaways, movies, dinners, sightseeing and socializing as often as we can,” said Dr. Singh.
On the occasions when she is able to completely rip herself away from work, Dr. Singh indulges in cooking and sometimes shopping.
“I love to cook and shop, mostly windowing shopping,” she mused, adding “I still like to practice my clinical skills, as I get to interact with patients and get feedback on how we can improve our services.”
To ensure that she is able to constantly improve at what she does in the land of her birth, Dr. Singh is continually learning new things. She disclosed, “I have never taken a break from studying; it helps me to stay on top of my game.” Added to this, she has a passion to “explore places and try new things. And I am also freakishly happy being by myself, but that almost never happens,” she jokingly quipped.
As she reflected on the woman she has become, this Columbia, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara resident noted, “There are many persons who would have contributed to forming the person I am today. My teachers at school, the people in Cane Grove who babysat myself and siblings when my parents were busy taking care of other people, the drivers who took us to school, the friends I found along the way, the Ministers of Health who I’ve worked with to date, but most of all, my parents, who have been my idols forever. I am truly grateful to God for placing me in such an amazing home.”

 

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