Region One Chairman Fermin Singh yesterday said that there is no food shortage at the Port Kaituma Hospital, while explaining that a delay in getting food to a patient may have been responsible for a false alarm by residents.
Stabroek News had been told by residents that the hospital had been affected by a food shortage for the past two weeks and that patients without relatives in the area were suffering. This newspaper was also told that persons were forced to remove their relatives from the institution because of the shortage of food.
“Sometimes people deliberately try to misinform the nation. I don’t see why people got to get upset for such small things…and just jump to negative thinking,” Singh said by telephone yesterday.
He explained that he contacted officials at the Mabaruma Hospital, which is responsible for supplies, and he was told that there was case where they were unable to get everything required for the special diet of a patient at Port Kaituma. He said that one of the patient’s relatives got upset at the hospital, upon learning that the patient had not received his meal. Singh, however, noted that the patient received his meal within an hour of the problem.
He further noted that it was not a case where the hospital had no food, while adding that it receives supplies on a bi-monthly basis. He said fresh foods, like meat and vegetables, are supplied on a daily basis or every other day. He noted that in most cases, relatives of patients opt to supply the meals and this could have been done in this case.
