Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 30, 2016 Letters
Dear Editor,
As a concerned Guyanese citizen and Reverend I wish to share my concerns about most of these private hospitals that charge our people exorbitant medical fees for very simple treatment and tests. Some years ago my father suffered a sudden stroke. I rushed him to a private doctor when I was living in Berbice. This arrogant doctor looked at my father and told me to wait in a line of over 200 patients, I refused. Then he told me to show him a huge amount of money before he can look after my father.
I challenged him telling him that I can get his licensed revoked then, he looked at my dad but the drugs he gave my dad was valued by NIS to be $560 yet I paid over $20,000 for his dead services. My mother died by a wrong injection given to her by a drunk doctor yet he charged to fill out the death certificate documents even though he was paid the first time but yet caused my mother’s death.
A few weeks ago one of my church members was rushed to a private hospital in Georgetown. The man was kept there for only three hours and was told he was having a first heart attack. They told the man’s wife and children that for them to keep him there they need $2.2 million cash which I found very interesting. Then they sent the man to GPHC by telling his family they have no heart specialist at their private hospital but all are at GPHC. For the 3 hours they charged $27,000 by just guessing it was a heart failure. If they had no heart specialist then why they wanted 2.2 million dollars? Why did they charge $27,000 for doing nothing to the patient?
The man was rushed by ambulance to GPHC where he was admitted into the ICU for about 6 hours. He came out and was talking to his family until 1 PM in the night. His family went home. They received a call at 3PM from the GPHC to go to the hospital upon their arrival they discovered their father was dead. This strong healthy man I know was just age 46 and the doctors just said a second heart attack killed him. I was told they had no proper system for example, a machine that was suppose to monitor the man’s body was not working. Until now no proper explanation was given how this man died so suddenly. It was a great neglect by removing him from the ICU and those working there did not do their jobs properly and know nothing about how to threat heart failures it’s all guess work.
The first hospital wanted $2.2 million from a poor family to save him. Some other private hospitals they called wanted more. I know of a Pastor who spent a few days at a private hospital and died yet the bill was $1.5 million dollars. Another old lady told me she spent
4 days at a private hospital for tests and minor treatment yet her family had to pay over
$250,000 and she got worst so she came to church for prayer. I am of the opinion that the medical profession is a noble one and doctors are bound by the HIPPOCRATIC OATH to save lives and not allow money to take precedence over their oath they are bound by.
I wish to quote the Hippocratic Oath below:
“I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of over treatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.
I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.”
I believe this Oath should be on every hospital walls and in ever doctor’s office. For simple illnesses people die in this country because the poor and needy cannot afford the millions these private hospitals are callings so they have to go to government hospitals where they wait for hours and days and eventually die.
There is a great need for professional medical attention for our citizens. I believe our present Administration should give these hospitals a Price Control Chart to follow and increase their taxes by a 1000% because they are an affront to the medical profession by just exploiting the public to get rich. Even rich people they over charge because they know they are rich so they expand their bills. I have discovered that people today in the academic world can do anything to get money even if it cost the life of a person they. It’s about time our government close down some or most of these hospitals and invest for cheaper and professional health care.
Rev.Gideon Cecil
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