The strides in the health sector such as open heart surgery have already been commended in these columns. However, the announcement on Friday by Minister of Health Dr Ramsammy that the health system is aiming to undertake a kidney transplant here in a matter of weeks is worthy of further commendation.
Considering the number of patients who have recently approached the local health care system suffering from kidney failure and seeking public assistance for expensive operations abroad, the possibility of doing transplants here is a momentous development. If indeed the transplant is done and it is an operation that can be feasibly continued it will immeasurably reduce the need for such operations abroad which are beyond the reach of most of the sufferers. Together with the dialysis centre that currently exists and another major one that is being set up, it would represent a sea-change in renal care.
If one were to read the tribulations and sacrifices made by the families of Reena Sultan and others in recent months it would be apparent how important this development could be. It would be a high value investment by the state in specialized care that might have to be subsidized in some way.
Dr Ramsammy’s announcement came at the formal launching of the New Amsterdam Intensive Care Unit (ICU). That in itself is a major development as patients in critical condition – at least some of them – could be kept there instead of having to risk a potentially hazardous journey to the Georgetown Hospital.
The ICU and the heart institute are examples of public/private partnerships that are also coming during a period of healthy expansion of the private system. These things are all to be commended.
Several types of invasive heart operations have already been conducted at the Caribbean Heart Institute and the results will undoubtedly be further assessed and more patients accommodated.
Much of the increased expenditure in the health system is in keeping with the global millennium development goals and the recognition that basic care at all levels has to be provided along with significant reduction of traditional scourges such as child and maternal mortality and malarial deaths.
There are some cautions that have to be added to the encomiums.
First, it will be clear that rapid expansion of health care will not only be costly but will tax the human resource base. Considering the active recruiting of health staff the government has to plot a strategy to ensure that the haemorrhaging of staff does not compromise the quality and consistency of care. It is anticipated that with the return of dozens of Guyanese scholars from Cuba that many of the new health facilities including those at Diamond and elsewhere will be manned. It is however something that requires careful attention and assurance that qualified personnel are in place.
Second, it will be recognized that with the revolutionary developments in the health care system quality control has to be striven for. Where the government has entered into partnerships to accomplish ground-breaking operations such as heart care, for example, those procedures should be subject to review and auditing by external bodies. Such processes should be outside of the government’s ambit as it has a vested interest.
Third, in expanding the horizons the Health Ministry has to ensure that the very basic needs aren’t overlooked. In some outlying facilities there have been prolonged problems with basic care. A letter writer recently pointed out that the X-ray unit at the Suddie Hospital has been an ongoing problem necessitating travel by patients to the Charity Hospital for the imaging to be done. These are the types of things that should no longer be problematic.
All in all there have been major strides in this sector and the Health Ministry and the government should be complimented.