http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....-specialty-hospital/

WE DO NOT NEED A SPECIALTY HOSPITAL!

March 22, 2012 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

. . . private health care is a big market and the oligarchy which is attempting to corner the major segments of Guyana’s economy is eyeing the health care system.
They already have their tentacles tightly around a large share of Guyana’s pharmaceutical industry which is a multi-billion-dollar market.
And now it seems as if they are about to make their move into the big league in Guyana, the provision of specialist health care. This is where bigger profits are available.
The government has to be very circumspect when it comes to entering into any partnership with the private sector when it comes to the provision of health care. For decades when Guyana’s health care was in the doldrums, when surgeries used to have to be cancelled at the public hospital because of the poor state of the operating rooms, the private sector was not very interested in partnering with the government.
The rich folks could afford to fly out to hospitals in North America to have their regular check-ups since many of them had dual citizenship or landed immigrant status.
Now that there is money, big money to be made from private health services, the oligarchy is trying to rope the government in by partnering with them to establish a specialist hospital.
This is unacceptable. This proposed specialist hospital that the government is proposing to build is not going to provide free specialist services. It is going to provide a market for private health- care providers with a heavy subsidy from the government. The cost has to be shared between the patient and the government and the government will also have to build the hospital. In short, the government is spending money so that the private specialists can make money by providing specialist services. This is what the proposed specialty hospital is about.
It is hoped that Donald Ramotar who has been a little slow off the mark but has been pointing in the right direction, is going to step in and put an end to this attempt by the oligarchy to make money using a partnership with the government.
There is no need for any public-private partnership when it comes to the specialty hospital. There is in fact no need for any specialty hospital.
Just upgrade the existing public hospitals to provide the specialty services and things will be okay.
This can be done cheaper than through establishing a new institution since the infrastructure is already there and the specialists can now be flown in to do the operations and flown out back afterwards.
The government cannot allow the oligarchy to continue to milk this economy. They should be on their guard to ensure that the oligarchy has no stake in the provision of health care by the State.