Dear Editor,
I read with great interest the letter published in your Friday February 19, 2010 issue about Mr Boyo Ramsaroop’s excellent experience at the Georgetown Public Hospital (‘Hospitalization experience at GPH was excellent’) and wondered why many other similar letters written by ordinary citizens have not been published in your newspaper. But then it dawned upon me that Mr Ramsaroop is no ordinary citizen.
With such a distinguished list of visitors including the President, no health worker would risk his or her job by providing less than excellent service to ‘Uncle Boyo’ who until recently was a staunch supporter of the Peoples Progressive Party.
It would do this country a good service if the same list of distinguished visitors were to pay surprise periodic visits to health institutions within the country to observe the plight of the poor and powerless, who are the main users of the health service. It would also be of interest to the taxpayers if the Ministry of Health were to make public the list of criteria used in assessing the performance of health institutions and the results of periodic assessments done by foreign independent assessors. I am a regular user of the services at the Georgetown Public Hospital and my experience has been poor. But of course I am a poor insignificant pensioner without the financial means to go elsewhere.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)