A billboard boasting of over $8 million in development is absurdly displayed near the run-down Mahdia hospital which also boasts a filthy non-functioning x-ray department and morgue and a ramshackle furnace, in the market area of the town.
The hospital, the main health care facility in the area, is infamous for its poor service, residents told Stabroek News during a visit to the area on Wednesday. A supervisor at the institution for 22 years said her complaints to Regional Executive Officer (REO) Ronald Harsawsack about the daily challenges at the hospital have fallen on deaf ears.
Unused $8M water tanks
According to the supervisor, at the moment the hospital depends on rainwater to fill an old, leaky tank. During the dry season nurses are forced to fetch water from a nearby-building to conduct their duties, meanwhile the 14, 800-gallon water tanks mounted on a concrete trestle remain unused. The entire structure was obtained through the CDB-funded Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) at a total cost of $8, 678, 600, according to the billboard.
The supervisor also complained about the lack of other facilities and a cramped working area she shares with seven staff members. The department has no computer and the only vehicle available to the hospital is also used by the REO upon request. A used ambulance which was sent to the hospital by central government is currently under repair and is not operational, the staff said. The supervisor also told this newspaper that supplies for the hospital are kept by the REO and staff are required to ask his permission when it is needed and he is sometimes reluctant to hand over the items.
When this newspaper raised concerns about the transportation with Harsawack, he admitted that the ambulance needed repairs and explained that vehicles that are sent to the region are not limited to one purpose as there are not enough vehicles for all the required tasks, as such a vehicle at the hospital might be utilized for another purpose. He also noted that his job requires him to move from one place to another and he does not have a personal vehicle.
Blood-stained bandages
A decrepit building in the hospital compound which was said to house the x-ray department was filthy with used, blood-stained bandages and garbage piled in a corner and x-rays conducted in 2011 and 2013 strewn about the unlocked structure. The supervisor said there is no technician to operate the X-ray machine which is now covered with a thick layer of dust and has seized up.
A dilapidated furnace is located near to the doctors’ accommodations. Hospital waste is burnt in this facility though it does not have a chimney and poses a health hazard to residents. AFC Region Eight RDC Councillor Naiem Mohammad Gafoor said the REO was informed about this hazard in 2011 and he pledged to have the furnace relocated and the current site excavated and buried but nothing has since happened. In response to this newspaper’s queries about the furnace, Harsawack said he inherited it and did not recall that he was informed about the related health risks.
Resident Christina Leach also complained to this newspaper about the poor service offered at the hospital, recalling that when she gave birth no medical practitioner was available to deliver her. The woman said she made several calls to two doctors who were at imbibing at different shops on that fateful night and both refused to treat her. However, she was safely delivered by a retired midwife who was at first reluctant to help as she was not authorised to do so, but acquiesced on seeing Leach’s distress.
Leach believes that in cases of emergencies a plane should be made available to transport persons requiring care not available in the interior to the city. The woman opined that only “special” persons might obtain that service if they find favour with the REO. Harsawack, however, rubbished those claims saying that every citizen’s health is important and he is not opposed to chartering a plane at a cost of between $500,000 and $900,000, in emergencies.
But Leach noted that only last month a patient who needed emergency surgery to have his appendix removed died, after being kept for a prolonged period at the hospital as the REO was reluctant to sign a document to facilitate him being flown to the city for urgent medical care. Another patient reportedly died in similar circumstances after he was shot with an arrow a few months ago and a mother lost her baby after she encountered complications during labour, Leach said.
Meanwhile, Gafoor said the situation at the hospital is as a result of the REO manipulating the hospital’s administration and the fact that the majority of residents are supporters of the Opposition coalition. Several public servants in the area also said Harsawack shows favour to supporters of the ruling party while those of the Opposition coalition suffer discrimination. Joycelyn, an elderly resident, said she was concerned about the health service as many times when she visited the hospital, she had been told that they had no treatment and that they would need the REO’s approval to grant the medication. She further said if the REO refuses to sign for the drugs to be administered persons are left to find other means of obtaining treatment, including travelling to Georgetown if the shops in Mahdia did not have the prescribed drug.
Another resident lamented that the return fare with a minibus is $16,000 and many times persons are required to travel to Georgetown to have x-rays for minor fractures which could have been done in the community had there been a trained technician stationed at the hospital.
While he admitted that there is no technician at the hospital, Harsawack refuted the other claims and suggested that the tensions being experienced in the run-up to elections will dissipate after today.
