Alliance for Change (AFC) members held a peaceful picket in Linden last Friday over “increasingly morbid conditions of the health sector in the mining town.”
According to a release from the AFC, the picket was spearheaded by the party’s presidential and prime ministerial candidates, Khemraj Ramjattan and Sheila Holder.
The AFC said it had discovered that the McKenzie Hospital lacked an intensive care unit, a proper operating theatre as well as ultra sound equipment. It added that Lindeners have complained that too many critically-ill patients have to be transferred to the city for treatment, as a result of an inadequate supply of specialist doctors. The hospital building is showing signs of deterioration although it was a relatively new building, it also said.
The AFC said that at the Wismar Hospital, a mortuary unit is not functioning. Additionally, it said the hospital has water and lighting problems and lacks an adequate supply of relevant drugs.
Meanwhile, the release stated that the Kwakwani Hospital is “completely neglected and derelict” and has a shortage of running water and insufficient supply of drugs. Further, it said “Lindeners have complained to the AFC that the Upper Demerara hospital is being stigmatised as an HIV hospital. They have asserted that this is unfair and unjust and must be addressed immediately.”
The party said that “these basic physical infrastructural maladies which affect the health sector in Linden must be remedied immediately.” It pointed out too that nurses are grossly underpaid and stated that it will “promptly effect change when it gets into office.” The AFC also stated that in its Action Plan it has expressed its “prognosis for the economic and social revitalisation of Linden and by extension Region 10” since the Linden economy “is in serious need of a potency dose.”
