While government ministers under the Donald Ramotar administration were accessing millions for medical aid, including for cosmetic procedures, some ordinary citizens were not getting the help they needed in cases that sometimes were sometimes life or death.
New Public Health Minister Dr George Norton says he intends to clip all “bureaucracy” in the medical assistance programme to ensure funds will be more readily available to patients who are in desperate need.
“I will be looking at cutting down on the bureaucracy of medical assistance because only recently we had a situation where it was too late for a child to receive medical treatment even though approval was given,” Norton told Stabroek News in an interview on Thursday, while referring to the case of Colleacia Harcourt.
Colleacia, seven, needed an emergency surgery for a brain tumor but died after her parents were unable to raise enough money to send her overseas for an emergency surgery. Her father had pleaded with the previous administration to release the funds it had promised for her surgery, which would have cost $7 million. The release of the funds was eventually approved by new Minister of State Joseph Harmon after the government changed. However, it was too late for Colleacia, who died three days before she was due for surgery.
“They had no love in their heart,” Colleacia’s father, Travis Harcourt, told Stabroek News. He said the Health Ministry’s slothful action showed that members of the previous administration were focused on themselves. “They didn’t care about children. I wrote [former] Education Minister Priya Manickchand and she never responded to me. I just needed help for my daughter,” he lamented.
“It hurts my heart to know that they didn’t turn their face to look at my daughter. She needed that money,” he said.
Colleacia will be buried today at Lichfield, West Coast Berbice.
Norton told Stabroek News that Colleacia’s case was heartrending and the ministry would ensure that there is no reoccurrence. “I think we must avoid that at all times,” he emphasised, before adding that he is looking at lessening the time that patients spend waiting for approval of medical assistance funding.
“We are dealing with sick persons and every day might be one day too late. We certainly want to cut down on the time they have to wait for approval,” he stated, while indicating that instead of having patients go through the tiresome process of consultations and record keeping, they should only have to fill and a sign a form.
Too much time
Norton stated that he knew for a fact that too much time was wasted in some previous cases before assistance was granted to patients. He added that he would ensure subsidies were increased for procedures such as CT Scans, MRIs, and angiograms, so as to take a weight off patients who could not afford them otherwise.
Stabroek News had previously reported a Health Ministry official as saying that patients would have to shoulder 75% of the cost for CT Scans, MRIs, and angiograms, while the State would grant them 25% of the costs and if they still could not afford to gather the 75% to pay for their treatment, then they could visit the ministry to seek audience with the minister on a case-by-case to see if they would be assisted.
The average cost for a CT scan is $27,500 and that figure rises depending on if it is with or without contrast. An MRI costs $55,000, an angiogram $240,000 and angioplasty starts from $1 million. Most times, the majority of patients at the Georgetown Public Hospital cannot afford the treatments.
Norton stated that he would try to have dialysis in private and public institutions subsidised for patients. He said the ministry would evaluate the financial standing of the applicants to see how much they could contribute to the procedure.
With a need to be readily available to provide medical financial assistance to civilians, to revamp infrastructure at various medical facilities, to purchase equipment and increase human resources, Norton stated that he could see the health budget being increased.
He also said he could not justify minsters in the previous government relishing in the “favourable benefits” of money intended to help persons who were in need of emergency medical treatment.
Of the $361.4 million disbursed by the State for financial medical assistance for the period of 2012 to 2013, over $200 million was spent on top government officials and their families and associates. Late presidential advisor Navin Chandarpal was at the head of the list, seen by Stabroek News, with $116 million spent for cancer treatment. Then Attorney General Anil Nandlall’s medical expenses, which were met by the taxpayers, totalled $4.9 million, with “medical support” being listed as the diagnosis, while then Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture Ali Baksh had a coronary bypass for which the state paid $12.2 million. His air fare was also paid by the government.
Substantial amounts were also paid out for dental care treatment for certain government officials at the time, with then Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai at the top of the list after receiving $2.1 million for dental work.
Sickening
At the other end of the spectrum, five-year-old Bibi Mohamed was only able to access $1 million for emergency brain surgery. Bibi, who died a day before she was scheduled to leave the country for medical treatment, was suffering from a malignant brain tumor. She was found dead in her bed in August, 2013.
At the age of three, she was diagnosed with the tumor. She had undergone a surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital in 2011, when a portion of the tumor was removed. But life took a tragic turn for her when doctors told her parents that the tumor had grown and they recommended an immediate surgery because the tumor had become enlarged.
“I can never forget what happened to my daughter. She was my only child,” Bibi’s mother, Tyjawattie Mahadeo, told Stabroek News yesterday. She stated that she had so much hope that her daughter would best the cancer but it was all shattered when she found her dead in her room, a week before the surgery.
“It is depressing to know that they could have saved my daughter’s life. Instead, they took the money to fill their teeth,” she said, before adding that while the former presidential advisor received $116 million for a similar surgery, her daughter only needed $8 million.
“My daughter’s life was in jeopardy and it is sickening because she could have gotten help if they just didn’t care about themselves. I really hope this new government does something better, especially for our children who need to go overseas,” she said.
