Funding can revolutionise health sector if properly managed 

Aug 28, 2022 News

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US$160M IDB loan for health sector…

– but Glenn Lall predicts widespread corruption, wastage 

Kaieteur News – Businessman and publisher of the Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall believes much of the US$160M loan being sought by the Guyana Government from the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) to upgrade health facilities here would be stolen and that the hospitals would be no better than they are today at the completion of the project.

Back in June this year, Kaieteur News had reported that the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Health had applied to the Inter-American Development Bank for a US$160 million loan to help boost the services offered at three major hospitals in the country and also initiate the digitisation of health care services to the Hinterland region. The IDB on its website had indicated that the loan is currently being prepared and has not yet been approved. According to the project details, the objective is to improve the health of the Guyanese population through increased access, quality, and efficiency of health services.

As such, the initiatives will seek to improve health outcomes associated with low and high complexity procedures, through the extension of hospitals’ capacity; extend the coverage of diagnostic, medical consultation, and patient management services, inclusive of the country’s hinterlands, through digital health; and increase the efficiency of the public health system, by strengthening key logistic, management, and support processes and inputs. The first operation of the loan features three components that includes ‘Supporting health services networks’ for US$48 million’; ‘Strengthening digital health’ at the cost of US$7.2 million’ and ‘Promoting health sector management and efficiency’ for US$3 million.

This newspaper reported last week also that the bank is adamant that the loan request is more than justified, especially when one takes into account the findings of a 2022 nationwide assessment of 330 health facilities. The IDB in one of its loan documents said the survey found that many of the facilities require infrastructure rehabilitation, construction and/or upgrade and equipment replacement or provision. The financial institution said 20 percent of the buildings had no electricity, and only 60 percent of buildings received water continuously during operating hours. In addition, 94 percent of the facilities did not receive treated water. Regarding structural, architectural, and operational integrity, 24 of the buildings were judged to require immediate rehabilitation and/or construction.

Expounding further, the Bank said the country’s principal national reference hospital, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, requires significant infrastructure investments to improve patient flows, alleviate overcrowding, reduce the risk of cross-contamination, and expand key clinical medicine and surgery as well as support services (imaging, laboratory, logistics and administration). Similarly, the New Amsterdam and Linden Regional Hospitals, strategic for providing services to the country’s interior, were deemed to require rehabilitation in multiple service areas. The assessment also found significant gaps in the availability of medical equipment and essential items, including medicines. For instance, only 76 percent of hospitals were equipped with a doppler machine, 68 percent with a steriliser/autoclave, and 48 percent with an ultrasound machine. Equipment and sets for uterine evacuation with Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) were present in 32 percent of hospitals, and IUD insertion sets were available in 28 percent of hospitals. Only 17 percent of health posts that provide immunisation services had cold storage available on site.

Possible corruption

Meanwhile, speaking on his The Glenn Lall Show (Kaieteur Radio 99.1, 99.5 FM) last week Wednesday, Mr. Lall made reference to the US$365M that was allocated to the health sector in this year’s budget. “That money must be disappear already, because now they are taking another US$160M on we backs and come next year, you gon be the same way, and the debts will still be hanging on your children’s necks,” Lall told his audience.

According to him, the US$160M being sought can build 10 seven-storey hospitals in every region of Guyana complete with state-of- the-art equipment and machines, beds, chairs – everything. “That US$160M they are going to spend less than US$20M and thief out US$140M; come next year, you will see couple zinc sheets change, couple windows and doors change, they patch here and they patch there, paint it over and the cycle keeps rotating year after year,” Lall declared.

Where has the money gone?

Lall questioned where did the US$365M set aside for this year to be spent in the Ministry of Health has gone.  “None of the main hospitals got the three most modernised equipment so badly needed in a country like Guyana. One is a CT scan to scan your brain if you get brain injury, one is a MRI Machine that scans the entire body and the other is the Cath Lab – this one you can do all kinds of heart surgeries. Those three machines are compulsory in at least the three to four main hospitals of the country, and they are not expensive, less than US$10M will put in all three of those machines in all four of the main hospitals of this country. That US$365M for this year disappear and you mussy ain’t even get a computer at the Malaria office to input data or even buy band aid for the medical centres.”

Lall said from the time it was announced that the government was borrowing US$160M from the IDB, it has been on his mind. “These are loans that will be left for our children to pay – is that fair to them?  Is that fair to the youths of tomorrow to pay for the crimes being committed today? I always believe if you borrow money, it must be well spent, the nation should see how every dollar is being spent. With this US$160M, the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, can put four Mount Sinai in Guyana that can really transform the lives of the Guyanese people with a proper health care system.”

“But that will not happen that money, hundreds of millions of US dollars will go up in smoke and the nurses, the matrons will not be better off, the patients will not get the basic pain killers or antibiotics and the Malaria Section where I went to get my vaccines still wouldn’t have a computer to tell me about my vaccine history. I feel sorry for that young nurse, trying to go through those old books to find my records,” he said.

He noted too that, “Almost all the oil money we collected from 2019 to the first quarter of this year, US$600M gone out already into National Development according to Ashni Singh. With that kind of money, you could have already seen massive transformation across Guyana. Ask them where they put it. These are the kind of questions when they come in front your face, you got to ask them,” Lall passionately insisted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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