– service contracts must be enforced
Emphasising his concern about lapses in patient care at medical institutions countrywide, President Bharrat Jagdeo says the government expects to see major improvement as it continues to invest more in healthcare.
Addressing recent hospital deaths, including the high-profile case of Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr Desrey Fox, Jagdeo reiterated the government’s focus this year on ensuring value for money, quality of service and accountability in the health sector. He said an improvement in facilities and the growing availability of doctors is not enough.
At the start of the year, Jagdeo announced that while all new hospitals will be made operational, audits, including clinical audits, would be introduced for all public health institutions. He said too that all public hospitals will be required to enter into service contracts with the Ministry of Health, where they would be held accountable for the provision of quantifiable and verifiable standards of health care deliverables. Further, the quality of service provided by all medical service providers, both private and public, is to be reviewed to ensure conformity with the Health Facilities Licensing Act.
On Tuesday Jagdeo noted that quality of service has been a big concern of his and the issue has been the source of stormy meetings over the last two to three months. He explained that while there are service contracts, they have not been rigidly enforced by the Health Ministry. “So the ministry needs to focus more on enforcement and the quality of care in both the public and private domain,” he said, adding, “If people are negligent and they don’t have sanctions, they continue with negligence.” He said too that at the supervisory level in hospitals, the people who are supposed to manage the system and enforce standards are also violating norms and practices of the institution.
He criticised the phenomenon of doctors who are being paid at public institutions, spending half their time working at private hospitals or clinics. He said at some point in time they would have to be asked to leave to pursue their private practice work if they believe they could make more money. “But don’t cheat the people at the public institutions because you are not there — and it is a form of cheating,” he declared.
Jagdeo also expressed similar concern about the education sector, saying that money cannot be pumped into the sector without corresponding results. In this regard, he said that a one-day retreat focusing on education is planned for the end of February.
Last year, Jagdeo ordered a probe into the treatment that the late minister Fox received at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), saying that he did not understand how she died after sustaining some fractures. He had also stated that he was not satisfied with the initial report from the hospital.
Fox was admitted to the GPH on December 8 after she was tossed through the rear windscreen of her car following a three-vehicle smash-up in the city. A female passenger, Andrea De Santos and a two-year-old child, Carlos Fox, who were also travelling in Fox’s car, were also admitted to the GPH. The minister was admitted to the High Dependency Unit of the hospital and was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit on December 11, hours before she succumbed to her injuries.
In December, there were also the maternal deaths at the West Demerara Regional Hospital and the Linden Hospital Complex, where pregnant mothers Salima Ram and Tricia Winth died, respectively. In both cases, hospital personnel were criticised for negligence by family of the deceased.
Other recent cases include those of Kean Greaves, the 10-year-old girl who died of a ruptured appendix at the GPH, which failed to quickly diagnose her condition; and Basmattie Balkarran, 28, a mother of three children, of Ruby Backdam, Parika, who was rushed to the GPH as an emergency patient but did not receive any immediate treatment.
