– patient rights charter on the cards
Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has criticised the way some medical professionals treat their patients, saying hospitals across the country are overlooking little details that are essential to the quality healthcare.
Speaking at the launch of Quality Health Care Week yesterday, the minister said issues affecting patients in the local system should be highlighted this week, and he urged there should be less talk and more action.
Ramsammy said patient care is an important issue in the health sector adding that the ministry is currently wrapping up a Patient Rights Charter, which will focus on the rights patients have in the system, and also emphasise the obligations of healthcare workers.
“When a patient leaves the hospital and a simple request is made by that individual for a report on their condition, that too becomes a task for persons working in the system and it shouldn’t be,” he said.
According to him, the ministry will soon gazette a code of conduct for healthcare workers that will regulate healthcare providers across the country. Additionally, a code of ethics for medical practitioners will also be compiled.
Ramsammy also said that service agreements are soon to be implemented at hospitals across the country. To date the agreements previously implemented at the public hospital are moving along as planned, he added, though there is still room for vast improvement.
Quality Health Care Week is being observed with the focus of improving patient care in hospitals countrywide and reducing medical errors. A culture of safety in health facilities is to be promoted at the public hospitals in Georgetown, New Amsterdam, Suddie, Linden, West Demerara and Bartica.
Yvette Irving, the Health Ministry’s Director of Standard and Technical Services, noted that the objective of the week is to have all six hospitals share values and the same approach to patients. She said it is also hoped that health workers would be more vigilant with patients and to change some of the current procedures.
Irving said it is expected that healthcare would be more safe, effective, patient-centered and timely.
In her remarks at the launch, Dr Kathleen Israel, PAHO/WHO representative to Guyana, said healthcare workers and persons caring for the sick at homes across the country should observe this week with a heightened consciousness of what their roles entail. She said that quality care requires a practical approach, but pointed out that the ministry should have mechanisms in place to monitor practices. Israel added that the perception of healthcare being of a better standard in the private sector is unfair, since public healthcare also offers quality care. She pointed to the reduction of maternal deaths at New Amsterdam and said there are positive achievements in the public system.
