Government Member of Parliament Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo yesterday criticised the former APNU+AFC administration for mismanaging Region Six’s public health sector, which he said was plagued by the shortages of drugs and medical supplies, and questionable spending.
During his contribution to the budget debate, Dr. Mahadeo stated that having a former bank clerk managing the region’s health services and a Minister of Public Health with no clue of health care delivery represented having square pegs in round holes.
He told the National Assembly that he asked numerous doctors who were tasked with managing hospitals in the various administrative regions about the issues that they are facing, they raised issues of shortages of medical supplies and drugs along with non-functional equipment.
“Mr. Speaker, when we took over in Region Six, there were five anesthetic machines, four of them not working and this is in the month of August,” he said while adding that a biomedical engineer came in and was able to fix one of the machines immediately, while two others are expected to be fixed within the week.
He went on to say that a new anesthetic machine was bought costing millions of dollars and was sole sourced. “This new anesthetic machine has never been used and cannot be used in the New Amsterdam Public Hospital so it is parked there. But do you know why it cannot be used? It cannot be used because it is an anaesthetic machine that is to be used for veterinary services to put animals to sleep for surgical interventions,” he further added.
Additionally, he mentioned that the former government boasted of receiving a new Computerized Tomography (CT) scanning machine in 2015 although its acquisition had been negotiated for under the PPP/C government. As it relates to this machine, Dr. Mahadeo stated that during the 2018 budget debates photos were displayed showing the machine being installed at the New Amsterdam Hospital. However, he stated that the machine is still not operational up to today. “It is my government that is putting systems in place to ensure that this machine is up and running by the end of the week,” he said.
Dr. Mahadeo said that as the machine was lying idle it could have saved citizens millions of dollars but it was being stored in a room.
He also mentioned that in the Auditor General’s 2018 report, as prices were compared for drugs and medical supplies procured by the regional administration from local suppliers, it was revealed that the prices paid by the regional administration were much higher than what was paid by the Materials Management Unit of the then Ministry of Public Health. “A tablet… $13 per tablet in Georgetown, the region paid $230 for one and Mr. Speaker they didn’t buy one, they didn’t buy 100, they didn’t even buy a thousand, they bought 8,400 of these tablets. Calculate the monies that were lost,” he said before he also mentioned that surgical gloves which could have been bought for $920 per box, were bought for $5,200 per box by the region instead.
He said people may ask why the Regional Tender Board did not oversee the spending. This, he said, could have been as a result of no then opposition members sitting on the tender board. He said even though the PPP/C had 20 of the 30 regional seats at that time on the regional council, it still had no representation on the Tender Board. “That, Mr. Speaker, is corruption. The same team, REO (Regional Executive Officer) and team that was appointed by the APNU+AFC, spent over $76 million to supposedly purchase COVID relief items,” he added.
Dr. Mahadeo further said that even with the supposed purchase of emergency drugs and medical supplies for the Region, Region Six was permanently out of drugs and is still out of drugs and medical supplies.
Meanwhile, he mentioned that in addition to the shortage of drugs, a digital X-Ray machine was purchased through sole sourcing to be set up at the New Amsterdam Hospital. He stated that the old machine was removed and replaced by the said digital machine. However, the machine cannot work as an important component is missing. Dr. Mahadeo indicated that the laboratory in the region cannot function to its capacity as most of the equipment there is non functional as there is no servicing of the machines and other equipment.
