Drug shortage a sore issue in Region 2 - diabetic patients overwhelmingly affected

Drug shortage a sore issue in Region 2 – diabetic patients overwhelmingly affected

May 16, 2020 News

The COVID-19 pandemic is apparently not the only issue hammering the Public Health sector, as health facilities on the Essequibo Coast are reportedly now short on key medication and supplies.
Arnold Adams, who is the Vice Chairman of the Local Neighbourhood Democratic Council in the area, said that healthcare within Region Two has been suffering tremendously. Adams previously sat as Chairman of the Region Two Health Committee, when he served as a member of the Regional Democratic Council.

Adams recently told this publication that health centres and hospitals within the region are short on main drug supplies. He went on to say, “Even as recent as this morning, you have residents went to the health centre and did not receive no medical supply… Instead, they asking them to go privately to access these things… This was a diabetic patient, his two toes almost severed, he went for dressing and they didn’t even have anything to test the sugar.”

Based on reports reaching Kaieteur News, a number of health centres within the Pomeroon/Supenaam region (Region Two) are totally incapable of treating diabetic patients. Reports are that for the past two months, a number of health centres have been short on insulin in particular.

One diabetic patient who spoke to Kaieteur News late last week said that she has been unable to obtain insulin from the health centre in Anna Regina, for some two months. “I bin at the health centre in Regina, like in March and April time for insulin… all two time me gone, them seh them na got insulin and is real stressful cause is da I does depend on to control me sugar.”

In Good Hope, which is located in the extreme south on the Essequibo Coast, patients have reported similar instances. In one case, an elderly man whose two toes are badly affected by diabetes was turned away from a health centre with little to no help, since there was an insufficient supply of dressings.

Adams went on to say that having to access private health care can be an additional burden to Essequibians, especially since the local economy is being drained by the COVID-19 pandemic, and an unstable political climate.

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