Specialised health care, attractive salary packages for nurses and doctors, an e-registry of patient data and holding physicians accountable for malpractice are among the plans being mulled by Change Guyana should they be able to win or get into Parliament at the March 2nd elections, says Prime Ministerial (PM) Candidate, Mishka Puran.
Making her maiden speech last week as the party’s PM candidate, Puran, an attorney-at-law said the vision of Change Guyana is to deliver a better health care system.
“We have a failing health care system. As evidenced by our previous and present Presidents, Ministers and senior government officials, Guyana is not the place to be when you are truly ill. Imagine these people in government and senior positions have access to the best of what we have and reject it. What does that say to the common man? The average person does not have access to the best. She has access to the mediocre or the barely adequate,” Puran contended.
She stated that her party will take a strong stance against malpractice by health workers and ensure those who are guilty of such offences are disciplined.
“A tougher stance will be taken on medical malpractice…So often you read of deaths in the hospitals that are unaccounted for and nothing is done about it. When was the last time that you saw a doctor struck off for malpractice? Probably never… We will change that… This is not a free-for-all country, and even if it has been so in the past, How many times have we had to say `Oh well, this is Guyana’? We will say that no more! We cannot accept that as our future,” Puran stressed as she addressed party supporters and members of the media at Change Guyana’s weekly press conference at the Pegasus Hotel.
Turning her attention to the procurement of pharmaceuticals, she said that her party will ensure that “the best tender will get the contract and the contracts will be split up so that no one person or entity monopolizes the supply chain.”
She added that under Change Guyana, they will seek to stop corruption in the procurement process and promote accountability and transparency.
“As part of the procurement of supplies initiative, Change Guyana will ensure that all public hospitals or clinics have adequate medical testing facilities or close access to one. There is no room for guesswork in medicine. Guyanese have the right to quality healthcare,” she emphasized.
Puran stated that Change Guyana would work to make hospitals self-sufficient by providing them with the necessary equipment.
“Regional hospitals need to be self-sufficient, with the same equipment and quality trained personnel… We recognize that all Guyanese are equally entitled to a well-functioning health care system. Change Guyana will properly manage our resources and ensure that our tax money is put to use to fix the broken medical system,” she noted.
Outpatient clinics, she said, will be given the tools to provide the requisite resources to enable proper distribution of medication and medical treatment.
“By equipping these regional hospitals and outpatient clinics there will be wider access to care for all, especially those with disabilities would not have to travel long and far to get the attention they need,” Puran said.
She also announced a plan to establish a national patient e-registry which healthcare givers will be able access from any hospital across the country.
With such a system in place, healthcare givers will be able to track the history of a patient and look at the procedures and medications they were administered in the past.
This registry, she expanded, would be backed up on the cloud system to prevent loss of data should there be a mechanical or system glitch.
“In this digital age there is no excuse for not having an e-database registry accessible by all public hospitals. Each patient will have his/her unique ID that can track their medical history and outline medications used and procedures done.
Puran further said that there will be regular programmes to educate persons on healthy food choices and activities. She stated that they would look to implement an order which would require fast food outlets to display the amount of calories contained in each meal.
“Change Guyana will ensure that information is disseminated in schools and across the country on the benefits of healthy eating, exercise and preventative measures. This would also include ensuring that menus and fast food displays have information on the calories contained in each meal,” she explained.
Puran asserted that the party also has a plan to restructure the National Insurance Scheme to allow it to provide better coverage for health care.
“Change Guyana plans to revamp and restructure the National Insurance Scheme to ensure that coverage matches the need of the citizens. Change Guyana will set up a system where contributions can be scaled and medical insurance provided accordingly; ranging from partial coverage to full coverage,” she said.
