The Regional Democratic Council of Region Six on Wednesday, heard that the Skeldon Public Hospital mortuary is presently not functioning, while the hospital’s landline phone is disconnected, since the bill is yet to be paid.
Regional Chairman, David Armogan, at the first statutory meeting for the year, on Wednesday told the council that he was informed that the mortuary has not been working for about three weeks now.
“The Skeldon mortuary has been out of operation because the freezer has not been working and people got issues now with storing the dead bodies,” he was quoted as saying.
Additionally, Armogan said, “The telephone there has not been working for a couple of weeks because the bill has not been paid and that is bad.” He stressed, “GTT would cut you off automatically. The bill has to be paid because as a hospital it is very crucial to the institution. These are institutions where communication must always be readily available.”
APNU Regional Councillor, Shurla Scott, then questioned, “Who is responsible for payments?”
Scott, who is also the administrator of the Skeldon Public Hospital, noted that she was speaking as a councillor. “We would have been disgusted hearing complaints coming that we are unable to pay our contractors when they would have done work for the region and unable to pay our bills, that is why I’m throwing the question today so that we can fully understand who or which department is responsible for the payments,” she was quoted as saying.
Touching on the mortuary issue, the councillor stressed that Corriverton persons who cannot afford to go private depend on the hospital’s mortuary. She said, “I understand from information received around the ground that the contractor because he wasn’t paid for three months aired his disgust and concern of not supplying what is needed for that mortuary, because of payments.”
Scott added, “This is not the first contractor I would have heard or would have had encountered …sharing their frustration of us not meeting payments.”
She stressed that it is not fair to ask persons to give service to the region and then fail to pay them in a timely manner.
The Regional Councillor disclosed that presently the hospital has resorted to the alternative of purchasing a cell phone and credit to make necessary calls. She also told the council that the staff at the Skeldon Hospital are spending their own monies to make phone calls.
Meanwhile, according to Scott, when they make enquiries about payments they are always given “flimsy” excuses. “Three weeks into this situation and yesterday [Wednesday] we were told that payments would have passed through and when we checked after lunch, our bills were the same,” she stated.
Armogan after listening to Scott, opined that it shows that there is a lack of communication between the top level of the health sector and the regional administration.
Meanwhile, Regional Executive Officer, Kim Williams Stephens, told the council that the “vouchers were indeed processed.”
She noted, “These vouchers are at the sub treasury department where the regional administration has no control over.”
However, at this point Scott from her seat said, “Fire them! They are making no sense.”
Armogan responded by saying that there needs to be a solution since the people of the region are suffering. “Whether we pussyfooting and kicking the ball around the compound or if we kick it around the region, at the end of the day the people suffers and that is my concern.”
He stated, “People are not working, they are poor and we have to provide a level of service which we are obligated to provide to the people.” “This is not a favour we are doing to the people, they are paying taxes and we cannot allow administrative bungling to affect the life of the people,” he stressed.
