Members of the Alliance For Change (AFC) yesterday picketed the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) calling for an independent Caricom investigation of the upsurge in maternal deaths around the country since the situation has reached “crisis proportions”.
“We are demanding an investigation into this hospital and the other hospitals where these maternal deaths have increased, and it must be independent of course. We would prefer a Caricom team to be here for purposes of carrying out this investigation… it is not an exceptional thing to ask Caricom officials for this kind of investigation because there is obviously something systematically wrong with our public health system,” the party’s presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan said.
He added that they do not appreciate the “propaganda” that is being issued by Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy that there is a spike but rather it has been a problem now coming to the fore and an investigation needs to be done to get the numbers right and put systems in place to avoid such occurrences.
Minister Ramsammy on Sunday told reporters that while there has definitely been an increase in the deaths – eight women have died since September – it is a spike compared to recent years which have seen around 14 deaths. He said this year has seen about 18 maternal deaths while the target–which was well in reach up to September–was 12 for 2010. The minister also pointed out that in the late eighties and early nineties Guyana saw more than 40 maternal deaths each year.
Ramjattan was joined on the picket line by the party’s leader Raphael Trotman, its prime ministerial candidate Sheila Holder and parliamentarians David Patterson and Cathy Hughes among others. Three children joined the picketing line briefly–one said she was not well and was taken to the hospital to see a doctor and the other two were selling with their parents at a roadside stand but later left after party members enquired why they were not in school.
‘Stop maternal deaths,’ ‘Cribs not coffins’ and ‘Ramsaran and Ramsammy must resign’ were the words on some of the placards held up by the party members.
According to Ramjattan, there is need for a Caricom investigation as he does not trust the local doctors to be impartial should they be allowed to conduct such an investigation.
“I do not feel that the Guyanese doctors here might want to be that unprejudiced in an investigation of this nature. There is tremendous solidarity and fraternity and being part of Caricom I think there would be far more professionalism and independence [if doctors from Caricom conducted the investigation].”
‘Public activism’
Meanwhile, Holder said the AFC is “outraged at what is taking place and this is the beginning of our public activism.
“People must understand that they have an obligation to remove this government if they really want to save mothers and children. I make the point that mothers, we are mothers we have been through pregnancies for nine months we know what it is to leave the hospital with a bundle of joy, not to have to bury our newborn. One loss, one such death is reprehensible,” Holder said.
She said that the fact that so many deaths are taking place in the country and the fact that the health system is not concerned enough to have a “timely investigation” to solve the problem is troubling.
“And we know how the problem can be solved, we need to bring back our people, qualified nurses and doctors, keep them in the system, pay them better wages and the one way we can do it is by ending the favoured treatment of their friends where the acquisition of drugs is concerned,” the parliamentarian said.
Holder was at the time referring to the Ministry of Health’s sourcing of its medical supplies from the New GPC without going to public tender. The Auditor General in his annual reports has repeatedly frowned on this practice.
Holder is of the opinion that if there is public bidding then the “savings would be tremendous” and nurses and doctors would be paid better wages and those who are overseas would want to come back and work in Guyana.
In reference to the minister’s statement about there being a spike in maternal deaths in the last three months, Holder questioned whether that was the standard that the country will continue to use.
“Maternal deaths don’t just simply spike just like that, there is a systemic problem with the system so you don’t just wake up one day and newborn infants die. Obviously what has been happening is something that would have happened eventually. The failing system is now catching up with us. We have been masking it all the while, deaths don’t just start occurring just like that,” parliamentarian Patterson added.
And Hughes said that Guyana has reached a “crisis situation” and while it can be described as a spike the reality is that many women went to various hospitals to give birth and the fact that so many died along with babies “is an indication that something is drastically wrong.
“What is even worse is that from the last month to now we have seen no clear change in the policy of managing the situation or any guarantee that this will not happen again.
So as we talk, as we talk right now, tomorrow or the next day another child or another mother we could be burying because there has not been a systemic examination of what has been causing this,” Hughes added.
She said while it is all good to pay doctors and nurses better there is a need to have regional hospitals well-equipped.
“When you start off trying to put a mother or any patient into some vehicle or boat or whatever to get to Georgetown you are working against the clock and more than likely you are going to be unsuccessful.
“How can a country fail consistently to provide better health care to people that cannot afford private sector expensive doctors? It is not acceptable.”
She said she would stop short of recommending sanctions for the health workers involved since she does not know what they have to work with and as such she is not in a position to judge any doctor or nurse.
“We don’t want to look at faults we want to ensure that tomorrow this does not happen again,” Hughes said.
Adding his voice, Trotman described the situation as an “atrocity” because according to him “where in this modern age mothers are dying at this rate and added to that of course we are in solidarity with all mothers, women and children… and it is important that we not only identify with but empathise with all those who have died.”
The AFC leader said that every time it is believed that the deaths have stopped another occurs and the fact that billions are being spent on health care in the country it is an abomination that a woman can leave her home and her family “expecting a nice bouncing baby to be coming back in a day or two only to know that you have to be making funeral preparations.”
He said the AFC is lending its voice to stand alongside those who have been complaining and demanding an end to the deaths.
