The Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday said it has been aggressively advancing a number of programmes to improve people’s health and life-style. One of its flagship programme focuses on diagnosing hearing loss among children and the elderly.
The Ministry was responding to a letter, ‘Ministry of Health must cater for patients in all regions’ and published in the Sunday Stabroek, October 16, 2022, which explained that its author, E. C. Lobert of Saxakalli Village, Essequibo River was advised that the government had procured hearing aids, and he who had lost most of his sense of hearing, was expecting to hear from his clinic as to when the aid was ready to be uplifted. According to the letter, the author was saddened to learn that these aids were instead dispensed within Region Four, hence he was not to benefit.
The Ministry of Health’s release did concur with Lobert’s statement that hospitals and clinics do have a list of patients who will benefit from hearing-aids. The release goes on to say that the letter-writer is on the list of beneficiaries and will receive his hearing-aid once the audiological team visits the Bartica Hospital in the coming two weeks.
The MoH’s release said that hearing-aids need fitting by trained technicians and calibration by technicians and audiologists and that Guyana is not yet able to provide these trained personnel at every hospital. The MOH said it is building capacity to ensure all hospitals have the relevant personnel, but presently an outreach team is ensuring that all citizens benefit from audiological services. Those patients who were diagnosed with hearing loss by the National Audiology Department of the GPHC, which also conducted clinics in Regional Hospitals, were referred to the Ptolemy Reid Rehabili-tation Centre for fitting and provision of the hearing-aids. The release said that the MOH recognised that many persons could not afford the subsidized cost, and compounding the problem was that the referred patients were from Regions 1, 2, 7, 8, 9 and from parts of Regions 3, 5, 6 and 10 all who experienced costly traveling to Georgetown for fitting and provision of hearing-aids.
The release said that a new policy implemented in 2021 established free access to hearing-aids for the public health sector patients. Up to this point, 220 hearing-aids were distributed in Regions 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10. Regions 1, 2, 7 and 8 are scheduled for the next several weeks. By the end of 2022, more than 300 persons are expected to receive free-of-cost hearing-aids.
The MOH, according to the release, is expecting to increase the 2022 distribution by greater than 100% in 2023. In 2022, almost $15M was allocated for hearing-aid procurement. In 2023, this will increase significantly. The MOH’s goal is that everyone with hearing-loss is able to receive the gift of hearing, and while the elderly population is targeted for benefits, the programme is also prioritizing young children, particularly school children. In addition to a school eye care programme, the MOH is introducing a school-based hearing health programme in 2023.
