The Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Social Services last week conducted a walk-through at several health facilities in Region Six after which the committee’s chair, Dr. Karen Cummings lauded what she said were noticeable improvements within the regional health system.
The committee visited the Port Mourant Health Centre, Port Mourant Hospital, the National Ophthalmology Hospital, New Amsterdam Regional Hospital and the National Psychiatric Hospital. Dr. Cummings, a former Junior Minister of Public Health and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and currently a Member of Parliament for APNU+AFC, said, “It has been an eye-opener, of course, we have seen some changes.”
After a hiatus of over five years, the National Ophthalmology Hospital, the only of its kind in Guyana and located at Port Mourant, earlier this year restarted cataract surgeries with the Ministry of Health investing over $90 million to procure needed equipment while additional funds were spent on rehabilitating the facility, which has three operating theatres and four wards. Stabroek News was told that thus far over 380 cataract surgeries have been completed at the hospital.
Dr. Cummings said after last week’s visit that when her party was in government they were having issues related to procurement of certain items, hence surgeries were not being done at the hospital. “I notice for some reason now they are able to access these scalpels and these instruments so that they can actually use those things.”
Dr. Cummings then spoke of the Port Mourant Health Centre, which she said should be a model throughout the country, “Many other health centres should take patterns from there. What I like about it, is there is a lot of community participation and so we want a lot of community participation, village leaders, and influencers to be part of the health team.”
However, according to the committee’s Chair, one of the most noticeable gaps was that of human resources within the health system in Region Six.
She pointed out that the National Psychiatric Hospital presently has 206 patients with just four staff, “We need to train more nurses and have more nurses join the health team…” Additionally, Dr. Cummings said there were other issues, such as drainage and irrigation, which she deemed “low hanging fruits.”
She continued, “We will write a report and make recommendations so that action will be taken.” Meanwhile, the Vice-Chair of the committee, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, who is also Minister of Human Services and Social Security, stressed that the regional health care system has progressively modernized with a number of new services implemented. Standing out for her, and several others on the visiting team, were the free CT scans now being offered by the New Amsterdam Public Hospital.
“People can actually do walk-ins and bring requests for CT scans to be done. This is extremely good because this wasn’t a service that was available here and in a short time they have managed to do that”, she said.
Previously, residents of Region Six would have to travel to Georgetown to have a CT scan done with a cost attached.
Persaud also noted that it was great to see young Guyanese doctors at various levels within the regional health system providing services.
“Many of them have been trained, they come back and are fully integrated into the services. Some of them are managing the services and you have also seen some of our doctors from GPHC, they have very senior positions (in Region Six) and they are making the kind of changes that I like seeing in the health care system”, she said.
Persaud also took the opportunity to stress that while there will always be room for improvement, there has been a massive transformation thus far within the region. She pointed out that the team also had an opportunity to speak with the Regional Health Officer and others where they learned about “short, medium and long-term plans, so they are already thinking about those improvements.” In 2017, the Committee visited the New Amsterdam Public Hospital where they heard that there was a drug shortage, more staff was needed and a key testing machine was out of order.
None of those issues were raised during the committee’s visit this time, in fact, the committee heard from both staff and patients that the lab attached to the hospital now offers a 24-hour service. Furthermore, a pharmacy was installed at the hospital’s A&E unit several months ago where patients were once administered a single-dose treatment on the spot with prescriptions to be filled the next day.
Meanwhile, patients who were present at the health centre and hospitals also spoke of the noticeable improvement. A clinic patient at the New Amsterdam Hospital explained that she noticed that all her prescription medicines are in stock at the health facility. The woman explained that though sometimes it takes a while for the clinic to get started, they are usually informed that the doctor is “running ward and will come soon.” Notably, some patients at the pharmacy located at the New Amsterdam Hospital, and those waiting to see doctors at the Port Mourant Hospital spoke of the lengthy waiting period. At the Port Mourant Hospital, Minister Persaud recommended that a better numbering system be instituted.
