Ignoring the seriously injured at Skeldon Hospital
SEPTEMBER 9, 2011 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER LETTERS

Dear Editor,

After reading the article of a Berbice family “Stunned by young girl’s death in Georgetown hospital”, please allow me to share my recent experience with your readers, as a Guyanese-American who lives in New York and was visiting Guyana a few weeks ago.

My brother and I were driving to Corriverton one evening and as we approached # 51 Village, on the Corentyne we saw a huge crowd and decided to stop. We wanted to see the commotion. We immediately spotted the source; an Afro Guyanese was lying in a pool of blood! The crowd that gathered just stood around gawking and talking loudly. No one even attempted to render assistance. There was a wedding party going on in the same village with everyone having a good time, but no one was willing to help.

We picked up the helpless man and took him to the nearest hospital which was, in Skeldon. He was unable to walk or stand and bleeding profusely. The next morning we paid him a visit. It was appalling to realize that the same way we dropped him off was the same way we found him. No medical attention was rendered at all!

After our startling discovery, I asked to see the doctor who was in charge. I was told that she was busy and had no time to talk to me. I told the nurse that I will call Dr. Mahadeo, CEO of Berbice Regional Health Authority in New Amsterdam to report the matter.
Upon hearing that, the doctor came out with her cell phone to her ears. After a heated argument she said to me that nothing is wrong with the man, there is nothing she can do to help him, and there is no one to take care of him, that he has to wait until Monday. She refused to give me her name.

After the argument got more heated one of the nurses mentioned that the doctor’s name is Dr. Balkarran. After this totally needless exchange, I gave the injured man’s mother $20,000 to take her son to New Amsterdam hospital and seek further medical attention. Upon arrival at New Amsterdam he was examined and found to have several fractured ribs and a punctured lung, which was taking in fluid. It seems as if some of these doctors placed in charge of caring for the helpless are trained to ignore, instead of to assist. Someone in the small crowd that gathered said. “Give her a couple hundred US dollars and see how fast she tek care a de man.” Really? Another person, whispered in my ear, “She was out last night having a good time while she should be at the hospital working.”

I wonder where is the oversight of these doctors who are in charge of the hospitals at night. Someone is snoring at the wheel. How many more deaths have to occur before this come to an end!!!

Concerned Guyanese-American

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I can only hope that this is really not so...I hope the authorities will respond with their side of the story.

albert, I am posting your response in advance. No payment required.

Health

2010

 Government expended $13.4 billion in 2010 towards the implementation of the National Health Sector Strategy 2008-2012.

 $1.3 billion was expended for the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of health care facilities in 2010.

 Over $280 million was expended on training, while more than 150 new health workers entered the public health sector contributing to improved doctors and nurses’ population ratio.

2011

 $14 billion has been allocated to the health sector

 Government has budgeted to inject $345 million into training activities, which will provide for an additional 250 professional nurses being trained and 140 clinical and technical staff, while over 280 students in various health disciplines are currently in training across the various schools.

 1 billion has been budgeted for the construction and maintenance of health sector buildings and infrastructure nationwide

 Storage bond in Diamond will be completed in 2011

 $235 million has been budgeted for the completion of the GPHC inpatient facility. Additionally, facilities at Enmore Polyclinic, West Demerara Hospital, Leguan, and Oscar Joseph District Hospitals will be upgraded.

Oi PPP mouthpiece albert, is what de rant goin on here chap?

Where's the conscience you're always speaking about?

Local health system has had successes but still has a long way to go
By STABROEK STAFF | LETTERS | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

Dear Editor,

She died on August 11, 2011 at 04:30 hrs. When her daughter, Roseanne, went to the hospital at 6 o’clock that morning, her bed was empty and the mattress turned down. She instinctively knew what that meant. Upon enquiring from the nurse in charge she was told that her mother was dead; she had died a couple of hours before. In many ways Janet Mohamed, aka Maamie, was a victim of a combination of circumstances: the relatively limited training of the doctors in Guyana; a health care system still struggling to achieve professionalism and a sizable population of poorly educated patients.

Maamie had been complaining of pain in the lower abdomen for a while. She was admitted to the Mahaicony Hospital and given painkillers and the ever present saline, and told she had gallstones. She also suffered from high blood pressure and high cholesterol which the doctors told her prevented her from being operated on. Meanwhile, she had to bear the pain. She had to have her blood pressure and cholesterol lowered before they could operate. The day she was discharged she was readmitted again because of pain – the sedatives and painkillers had worn off. This cycle of hospital admittances and discharges – sometimes self discharges – continued for a couple of months.

She went through the same routine at the Fort Wellington Hospital. She was admitted for pain, was given saline, painkillers and sedatives and the usual complement of medications to treat high blood pressure and high cholesterol. When she thought she was better she obtained a discharge and went home. That same evening she went back to the Mahaicony Hospital. The pain was too much. By this time the Cuban trained doctors were at their wits end trying to figure out what to do. They received a call from Beverley Harper from Rotary in Georgetown. Beverley had contacted Dr Bheri Ramsaran, the Junior Minister of Health who in turn lit a fire under the doctors at Mahaicony. This caused the doctors to promptly refer her to the Georgetown Hospital.

At the Georgetown Hospital Maamie was admitted to the psychiatric ward, allegedly as a result of the referral letter from Mahaicony, so she decided to go to a private hospital. She went to St Joseph’s Mercy in Georgetown. She was told she had to spend a week there in order to diagnose her condition. After about five days she was prepped for surgery. Moments before the surgery the doctor notified her that he could not operate because she only had a fifty-fifty chance. She was sent home again. Total cost: over $150,000. Her life savings were slowly becoming depleted and she had the prospect of having to pay the private doctor for each clinic visit.

Next stop: Balwant Singh‘s Hospital. Same routine: admission; hospital bill; discharge. She finally ended up at Mahaicony Hospital. Her money had run out. After a few days she was discharged again. Her final admission was to the Georgetown Hospital. She spent a few days there and was discharged in a body bag. Maamie left behind a husband, nine children, one of whom has a heart defect and needs care for the rest of her life, and two adopted children who were orphaned when her brother died of poisoning. She had had a limited education, and her own parents could not read and write. She worked hard digging coconuts. Her hardened demeanor was a result of her hard life. She developed an abrasiveness that was her defence mechanism. Yet, despite such a front, she was a true mother.

Even though Guyana’s health care system has made tremendous strides over the past two decades, it is not enough to match those of its sister Caribbean nations. According to the World Health Organization, Guyana spends $133US per capita on health care. While this is small when compared to Barbados at $1,041US, there has been an improvement since 1990 when health care spending was far less. Add to this the difficult terrain that one has to traverse to reach the rural communities, then this per capita spending is just a drop in the bucket.

In 2006 President, Bharrat Jagdeo signed an agreement with Cuba whereby Cuba would assist in building and running a set of five health facilities in Guyana. Cuban doctors were to run these facilities while Guyanese scholarship recipients were being trained as doctors to take over. Five years later the doctors are back and attached to the various hospitals in the country. If Mahaicony is to be used as a measurement of the success of this programme then it must be admitted that improvements have been made. For the first time the Mahaicony Hospital has its own X-ray department, its own ultrasound department, its own lab to perform blood tests, an improved emergency and ICU department, Cuban trained Guyanese doctors, and if the increase in patient load is a measurement of success, then Mahaicony has improved, with patients leaving the long waiting lines in Georgetown for this health facility. .

However, the three or four doctors are general practitioners, and their salary is not becoming of a doctor. They catch the hire car to and from work just like any other public employee. For most of them the opportunity to study to be a doctor via a fully paid scholarship was a lifetime opportunity they could not pass up. And now they are in Guyana as a result of their scholarship contracts. The opportunities for professional development are mainly limited to local sessions. They cannot join the brain-drain that has been leaching this country for the past 40 years, therefore they stay and attend to the masses like Maamie.

Maamie’s death certificate listed her direct cause of death as cardiopulmonary arrest (heart attack). An antecedent cause of death was listed as chronic renal failure (kidney failure). It should be noted here that her feet were beginning to swell about one month before her death and nothing noticeable was done to assist in alleviating this. Her other significant conditions contributing to death were listed as diabetes mellitus and hypertension. For most of us looking in it may as well be lack of education, lack of proper diagnoses, lack of professional doctors who can sit a patient down and explain her condition, and most of all a lack of will among the masses to demand a health care system that despite its enormous successes, still has a long way to go to avoid deaths such as that of Janet Mohamed.

Yours faithfully,
Sharir Chan

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these health centre is made for the guyanese poor helpless and stupid poor and helpless i can see but stupid i cannot figure out i will wait until after the election to see how much more is still stupid

quote:

Originally posted by warrior:
these health centre is made for the guyanese poor helpless and stupid poor and helpless i can see but stupid i cannot figure out i will wait until after the election to see how much more is still stupid

Unfortunately, most poor Guyanese are so used to poor medical service that they do not have any good service to compare it.
They speak under their breath about the bad service and dont know how to complain effectively. Thus the system take advantage of them and not much change.
Overseas Guyanese gets angry at the way their relatives are treated, but no one person seems to be in charge to make meaningful change, when they complain.
Most PPP officials have strong overseas connections and would easily move, if the PPP lose the election. In the mean time they feed off the gravy train, on the backs of the poor.

GPHC admits poor communications in maternity death
SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER NEWS

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has acknowledged that there was a breakdown in communication between some healthcare practitioners and the family of 21-year-old Shinella Clarke, who died on September 6, 2011 at the facility after undergoing a surgery. According to Michael Khan, Chief Executive Officer, after reading Kaieteur News article entitled ‘Berbice family stunned by young girl’s death at GPHC’ he summoned all senior staff of the hospital’s Gynecology Department to a meeting. The CEO related that during that meeting it was discovered that there was insufficient communication between the practitioners and the aggrieved family.

Khan asserted that he reminded the practitioners of the importance of proper communication with family members especially those who passed away at the facility. He emphasized that just a few words can go a far way in consoling family members. He pointed out that with proper communication about circumstances surrounding the patient’s aliment or death could prevent family members from involving the media. “This is not to say that the hospital is opposing a family of any patient the right to contact the media,” Khan noted.

The CEO stated that Clarke was referred from the Skeldon Hospital to New Amsterdam Hospital to GPHC on September 6, 2011. She arrived at the facility at 01:13h for management of abdominal tenderness with guarding, and query for ruptured Ectopic pregnancy. He said that Clarke was operated on and after surgery her condition was critical. She was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It was noted that Clarke was provided with four (4) units of packed cells. The young woman subsequently died.

When Clarke’s relatives contacted Kaieteur News they related their frustration about several issues but focused primarily on the fact that the hospital did not inform them of Clarke’s death. They related that after hours of waiting and inquiring about the woman’s condition for about the third time then they were told that Clarke had died.

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