Sole-sourcing a thing of the past – New Health Minister

As he made his way through sections of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) yesterday hugs, kisses and congratulatory remarks were offered to Dr George Norton.

Newly-appointed Minister of Public Health, Dr George Norton, (at centre) meets with senior officers within the sector yesterday.

Dr Norton was on Wednesday sworn-in as Minister of the Public Health Ministry under the newly-elected A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government.
His trip to the all-too familiar GPHC yesterday represented his first official visit to the Public Health institution in the capacity of senior Minister of Public Health.  Because of his political appointment, Dr Norton is required to give up his position as Head of the GPHC Ophthalmology Department which he has held for several years.
Moreover, his visit to the hospital yesterday was to meet with departmental heads, some of whom he has worked with for many years.
Among those he met with yesterday were Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud; Permanent Secretary within the Health Ministry, Mr Leslie Cadogan; Chief Executive Officer of the GPHC, Mr Michael Khan; Director of the Institute of Health Science Education, Dr Madan Rambarran; Directors within the Nursing Department and other senior functionaries.
Ahead of visiting the GPHC, the Public Health Minister met with staffers at the Brickdam, Georgetown, Ministry of Health, headquarters.
During an interview with this publication yesterday the Minister admitted that he is now grooving into the new position.
“I must say that at one stage I was nervous, but then when I take into consideration the seriousness of the Health Ministry in any country that sobers me up and tells me that the work has now begun,” said the new Minister.
He related that over the years he was troubled by a number of areas within the health sector ranging from the high rate of maternal and child mortality to the high incidence of suicide.  Another issue of concern that has been gaining the attention of Dr Norton for a number of years is that of the whole system of procurement of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.
And according to him, during his tenure he will be aiming to make sole sourcing of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to the Health Ministry a thing of the past.
Sole sourcing, he pointed out, meant that procurement from a single entity, the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Company in this case, was done through a Cabinet order. But according to Dr Norton, “that is not the way to go. We have got to go through that method of having everybody on a level playing field by having a bidding process…it doesn’t mean that these (contracts) will always be awarded to the lowest bidder.”
This is in light of the fact Dr Norton noted that some cheap medications that are sourced in India, for example, are not of the high quality of some high-priced medications that are sourced in Texas, United States.
“My experience tells me that some of these high-priced medications are so much more superior than what we can get from Pakistan or Bangladesh or from India…so those are some of the factors we will have to take into consideration,” the Health Minister stated.
Another factor that must be considered is the need for healthy competition, said Dr Norton. “We just can’t have sole sourcing; you need to give other companies the opportunity to come and present their cases to you, and make it in such a way that the pre-conditions do not limit them from applying, and that is what has happened in the past.”
Such issues along with the need for proper training of medical personnel, he asserted, will not go unaddressed.
“If I am allowed to, and can get my way, I will concentrate particularly on those…” he added, even as he turned his attention to the importance of job satisfaction in the whole scheme of things. He was at the time making reference to the fact that measures must be put in place to ensure that the medical personnel do not merely “go through the motion of coming to work and doing a job, finishing at a certain time and going home.”
Instead he is hoping to help transform the public health sector to one where the medical personnel’s primary focus is to make a sick person feel better.
“I am worried about how things are right now. I want persons, doctors and nurses, to be a part of the team, like the patients’ relatives and the patients themselves,” Dr Norton emphasised.