Latest update April 28th, 2024 1:33 AM
Jan 03, 2010 Features / Columnists, My Column
This is the first Sunday in what promises to be a good year for many reasons, the best being that there is going to be no global economic crisis hence there will be no collapse of CLICO. At the same time, the Guyana Sugar Corporation believes that it has turned the corner and once more Guyana should be proud of its sugar production levels.
However, there are still going to be some annoying things that could see innocent people dying because of the atrocious habits of some public servants who are content to draw money from the public coffers and do precious little for that money.
In fact, they are going to go chasing after even more and the funny thing is that they would be allowed to do so. In this case I am talking about the consultants attached to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and other government-run institutions.
These people are responsible for the death of so many hapless Guyanese. I regret having to write of these things at the dawn of a New Year, but I sometimes believe in doing what has to be done, especially since I was taught that procrastination is the thief of time. To add insult to injury, I am not certain how much time I have on this blessed earth.
On Thursday I was at a press conference with Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, himself a qualified medical practitioner. I asked him about two women who died in childbirth when they really should not have. I also talked about the death of Minister within the Education Ministry, Dr Desrey Fox.
I hate it when innocent women die under such conditions, especially young women who had so much to offer, women who were forced to leave their young children behind.
I spoke to Dr Luncheon about the conversation I had with the husband of one of the women. I told him about the tears this man shed when he thought about his dearly departed wife and the three children who are now his sole responsibility.
I learnt that despite the millions of dollars the government has spent to improve medical facilities in the country, this has not resulted in an improvement in the attitude of the people who must man these institutions.
I learnt that when Dr Desrey Fox entered the medical institution with some injuries, in the final analysis it was an intern who worked unsupervised to treat her. This is atrocious. An intern is a trainee; he/she is someone who is learning the profession. He/she should be supervised.
However, the consultant simply told the intern what to do before leaving for his private practice. It is now history that the woman died. Carelessness caused her death. I then thought that if a very important person could be treated in that manner, what would be the fate of the ordinary person. Well, there were two mothers who died. They tell the whole story.
Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy always seems to have all the answers. He rushed to defend the medical staff when Robert Corbin, the Opposition Leader called for an investigation into the woman’s death. He claimed that the hospital did everything.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, though, did not accept that crap and he demanded a thorough investigation. The report has been submitted and I expect to get a copy. I hear that the report was damning but I am certain that the consultants are going to continue to collect their full pay and work at the hospital for two or three hours a day, if so much.
Doctors take an oath, but it would seem that doctors in Guyana take the oath and only pay lip service to it. Dr Luncheon told me about an Indian national who worked at the Georgetown Public Hospital and who had to be chased. This man went to the United States and people sang his praises. The turnaround was unbelievable.
Dr Luncheon told me that the man told him that he could have got away with anything in Guyana but not in the United States. I suppose the consultants are saying the same thing. They care not one hoot about people’s lives. They forget that they too get sick and Dr Mohamed Bacchus comes readily to mind. He was my friend. Perhaps he knew what went on between consultants at the Georgetown Public Hospital so he chose a private hospital and treatment overseas. He died never-the-less because they could not access the foreign hospital in time.
Dr Ramsammy, who rushes to defend everything about the medical institutions, must now get the consultants to earn their pay. He must see that they are not working. He must be getting reports, and unless he is afraid of them, he should have sent some of them packing by now.
They are killing people and they are going to kill more. As a reporter, people came to me with horror stories. One man went into the Georgetown Public Hospital with a broken arm and died. There was a woman who underwent surgery. The doctors never sewed her up. I knew this because the relatives called me to video the corpse. Her abdominal cavity was open and all the intern had there was a strip of padding.
The other day, a friend walked into the television studio to talk about the death of her husband. Carelessness was the cause of his death and the consultants keep getting paid because I suppose we are afraid to go after them.
A medical doctor killed two people in New Amsterdam because he felt that he could perform the surgery unaided—without even a nurse. In one case he sewed the intestines. The Guyana Medical Council acted but the courts ruled that the doctor should continue to perform.
I am going to push for a change in attitude on the part of the consultants. At the same time I have asked friends that should anything happen to me, get me overseas. The brutes would kill me if they get their hands on me.
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