The sick should not be held to ransom

Oct 04, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

Kaieteur News – The nurses’ protests – which involve being off the job during working hours and sick-outs – are unlawful. They do not fall within the ambit of legitimate industrial actions since they are prohibited under the law.
Whatever the merits of nurses’ demands, this column considers actions which are tantamount to holding sick people at ransom, as immoral, depraved and unconscionable, especially occurring in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has said that contingency plans are being put in place in the event of a strike. Such strikes, though not permitted by law, have taken place before. It has affected health care. People have died as a consequence. But it has never crippled the health system… and it will not do so now.
There should be no sympathy for those nurses whose actions are illegal. This country has gone through too much since March of this year to be tolerating any further slackness. The government has to be fair but also firm. It must not condone the health of citizens being held to ransom.
A new generation of Guyanese have emerged. They did not stand for the attempt to hijack democracy. They will not stand now for any political strike, which is illegal, and which will lead to suffering and deaths. The people will respond favourably, as they have done in the past, to calls for volunteers to help save the lives of the critically ill.
But a contingency response to the heartless and political actions of the nurses is not the only response which is required at this time. The national health system needs to be reformed.
The global pandemic has exposed the inadequacies of our local health system. The system is presently not geared to adequately address health crises such as this pandemic.
Health experts have predicted that the coronavirus pandemic maybe the first this century. Others will follow. Guyana therefore needs to look beyond the present crisis and to reform its health system to cater for future pandemics and other health crises.
The health system is not structured to deal with epidemics and pandemics. It is too centralized.
The present system is ineffective and leads to wastefulness, as was evident a few weeks ago when more than G$1B in drugs had to dumped. It is not well-suited for preventative medicine or community-based treatment.
If someone gets sick, that person’s relatives should be able to summon a neighbourhood health worker living in the community to assist. There should be trained medical persons in every community to respond to effect Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and other emergency procedures relating to emergencies and injuries.
At present, whenever there is a health emergency, the sick and injured have to be rushed to either a health clinic or a hospital. This is not the ideal model for a country like Guyana and especially when one considers that in some cases the health clinic may be a hundred miles away.
Cuba has an excellent community and prevention-based model. In every neighbourhood there are resident doctors and nurses who respond to the health needs of residents within their area. They also engage in preventative medicine, going door-to door, to visit people to check on their health and to address any condition. They are therefore familiar with the people whom they are treating and their medical condition. Therefore, when a medical emergency occurs, they can treat the patient immediately based on first-hand knowledge. Health care is accessible and is quick and effective. They can undertake health surveillance in their communities.
Guyana however has an elitist health system. If you are rich you can afford the expensive private medical health care. But if you are poor, you have to go to a public hospital or health clinic and wait your turn – which can be for hours – and hope that there are medicines available.
The local medical fraternity favours such a system. It makes private medical care lucrative, including for those doctors who work in public hospitals but moonlight at private hospitals.
Such a system is not suited to responding to pandemics or for effective preventative medicine. If there was in place a community-based health system in Guyana, such as what exists in Cuba today, the high-risk persons for the coronavirus infections, would have already been identified and precautionary measures would have been taken. Persons from the community can be trained as doctors and nurses. They would live there and work there fulltime.
The other benefit however is that with such a system there is a reserve army of health doctors, nurses and other volunteers who can be summoned in the eventuality of inconsiderate and inhumane protests by nurses, in the midst of a health crisis.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

---

---