Government has received a complaint that persons are travelling from Suriname to Guyana to access the free health care services available in Berbice, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said last Friday, while noting that records are being gathered following which corrective action will be taken.
This revelation comes on the heels of a report that there is a shortage of drugs at the New Amsterdam Hospital, in Berbice.
Addressing reporters at a post-Cabinet press briefing, Harmon revealed that during one of his outreach meetings in Berbice, he received a complaint from regional officials that “we are having persons who are actually coming from Suriname and utilizing our medical facilities in Berbice.”
While Harmon did not clarify, it would appear that these persons are Surinamese nationals. “…The bulk of it is free and so you have …traffic from Suri-name coming to New Amsterdam, coming to Berbice and utilising our system,” he said, before adding that officials have undertaken to ensure that they have a clear record of the transactions so that some steps could be taken to correct this situation.
Meanwhile, on the issue of drug shortage at the hospital, Harmon said that Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence had already taken steps to address it. He reminded that a team from the National Assembly visited the New Amsterdam Hospital and discovered the shortage, which was “something that the government was aware of before and [was] taking steps to ensure it was corrected.”
Harmon also noted that from time to time there are shortages of a particular drug but not a general shortage. “As far as I am aware, from time to time there would be specific shortages which the ministry take steps to correct and the Minister of Public Health has actually taken steps to correct that situation,” he explained.
During its visit to the hospital, the parliamentary sectoral committee on social services heard about several issues, including the drug shortage.
Chair of the committee Dr Vindhya Persaud said that the issue was raised by patients with chronic non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as some with other ailments such as thyroid disease.
“What we have noticed is that there seems to be some difficulty between the demand [and] supply and procurement… Some-times it is that the hospital may have, but inadequate to supply the outpatient or they would not have received sufficient medication from MMU [Materials Management Unit]. There seems to be shortages but they are expecting to receive medication … and we will have an updated list as to what is available and what is not,” she told the media.
