Major overhaul of the Bartica health sector needed – BUYDG

March 24, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under News, Source

The Bartica United Development Group (BUYDG) has expressed frustration of the state of the health sector within Region Seven (7).

President of the BUYDG, Micah Williams has said that the residents of Bartica have lodged complaints with him over several issues which are affecting them at the Bartica Hospital.

Bartica District Hospital

Williams said that residents stated that on many occasions, they are forced to go all the way to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) due to the lack of adequate facilities at the Bartica Hospital.

The residents, Williams said, have complained about not being able to get the medications that the doctors have prescribed for them because the Hospital in most cases does not have the prescribed medications. Also “when the medical officers prescribe to patients different types of medical tests, they have to go to private labs in Bartica such as the Eureka lab to do their tests due to the lack of testing equipment at the Bartica Hospital.
According to Williams, first time mothers have to relocate because the hospital in the community is not equipped to treat them.

Williams also said that when the residents go to the GPHC with their sick relatives, they have to spend weeks in Georgetown, and in most cases they do not have a place to stay. They oftentimes have to stay in a hotel and incur the cost associated with such provisions.

Williams made reference to publications in the press/media on 28 February 2014, which he said stated that Health Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsaran handed over seven new ambulances worth $60 million to the various Regional health bodies and the GPHC.

Hospitals in Region Two, Three, Four, Five and 10 were the beneficiaries of the ambulances, which are expected to boost their responses to accident and emergencies.

Region Four (GPHC) received two ambulances while one ambulance each was presented to the other Regions.

But the BUYDG does not support the way the ambulances were distributed since, according to Williams, most of the mentioned health sectors already have ambulance(s), and Bartica Public Hospital at present does not have one.

BUYDG, according to its President, is “very disappointed with the problems that the residents of Bartica are facing within the health sector, given that the Hospital deals with life and death situations and its purpose is to provide an essential service to our community. The facility should have been more advanced and residents should be comfortably benefiting from such a medical service/facility, taking into consideration they are paying enough  revenue to government so that the Hospital can be upgraded properly because this region is a main revenue contributor to the treasury of Guyana.”