The healthcare workers are selflessly putting their lives on the line

May 01, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Health workers are risking their lives, and the least we can do for them is to make sure they can go to work with personal protective equipment – PPE. They need masks; some need high-quality masks like N95 masks. They need gowns, gloves, goggles. They need simple equipment like thermometers and pulse oximeters. They need ventilators and medicines and reagents for laboratory testing.
The Guyana government, almost two months since the first COVID-19 case, has failed to ensure these health workers have adequate PPE and other things they which need to fight COVID-19.
Every day, doctors and nurses are calling us for help. Different people are providing whatever help they can to our saviours. I am thankful that the National Multi-Stakeholders Forum established by Dr. Irfaan Ali was able to deliver to the GPHC and other institutions some PPE. While citizens are stepping up to help, the Government seems increasingly paralyzed.
Guyana is at war with an invisible, silent enemy – COVID-19. The SARS CoV2 virus is the enemy. It is all over the world, leaving a trail of bodies. Close to 3 million people have been confirmed infected and close to 200,000 have been confirmed dead around the world.
In Guyana, where we barely test for COVID-19, there are 67 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 7 confirmed dead as of April 22. We do not really know how many people are affected because we barely test. We do not know if there are other deaths, since people might have died of other “causes” because they were never tested.
In this war, Guyana, like the rest of the world is not fighting an army; it is fighting a more powerful enemy. Our frontline defenders are not soldiers; they are health workers. They have no guns or war tanks or military planes or military boats. They have themselves, their selflessness, their generosity, their technical knowledge, their dedication and commitment. They put their lives and the lives of their family at risk every minute of the day. The least we can do is to help them fight the enemy with PPE.
Worldwide, as millions of people stay at home to minimize transmission of the COVID-19 virus, healthcare workers – doctors, nurses, medical technologists, pharmacists, other support staff, including janitors – prepare to do the exact opposite. They go to clinics and hospitals, putting themselves at high risk from COVID-2019.
Figures from China’s National Health Commission show that more than 3300 healthcare workers were infected as of early March and, according to local media, by the end of February, at least 22 had died.
In Italy, 20% of responding healthcare workers were infected, and some have died. More than 100 doctors died in March in Italy. More than 1,000 nurses have died in America. Reports from medical staff in different countries describe physical and mental exhaustion, the torment of difficult triage decisions, and the pain of losing patients and colleagues, all in addition to the infection risk.
The Guyanese health workers are facing these same challenges, these same risks.
I highlight this matter not to cast blame but to ensure that the authorities get their act together. We need PPE for our frontline heroes, the people who must go to work every day to ensure we win this battle against COVID-19.
It is not enough for Guyana to await a shipment of masks from China. It is not enough to ask India to send Guyana some help. We had a billion dollars to rehabilitate a building owned by some private person, and this rehabilitated building will not be available soon. We have money to hire a lobbying firm. My God, we can do better. Sometime ago, the authorities claimed that a set of ventilators that were delivered, were ordered in December through sole-sourcing, because Guyana “had started to prepare for COVID-19”. Why then is Guyana so desperately short of PPE?
The temptation will be to insist that there is no shortage. This will be an insult to our heroes, the men and women, mostly young people, who every day put their lives and those of their families at risk.
The Ministry of Public Health cannot claim that they have enough PPE when staff at various hospitals and health centres are calling and begging for PPE. By insisting there is no shortage, the Ministry will be repudiating these brave souls, deeming them liars. The truth is plain for everyone to see.
In the meantime, we have depended entirely on PAHO/WHO for testing. Guyana obtained not a single test kit by itself. Now the private sector has been given the go-ahead in a loose arrangement. Because there is no coordination between the government and the private sector, there is now evolving a wild-west in testing.
Many pharmacies and private doctors and some laboratories are offering tests that are of questionable quality. Now that the barn doors have been thrown open, Guyana’s Food and Drug Department has warned that it will prohibit the importation of rapid tests. But there already are rapid tests that are being sold for $20,000 per test in Guyana.
The National COVID-19 response has been knee-jerk and reactionary; a loose and “let’s see what happens” approach. The National Multi-Stakeholders Forum established by Dr. Irfaan Ali has had a more cohesive approach. Individuals in civil society have stepped up. The government is flailing like a beached whale, confused and desperately trying to save itself.
The Guyanese people have been abandoned. But in this abandonment, the health workers must bravely put their lives on the line every day. We must stop the nonsense now.
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

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