Kamarang residents plead for a doctor

Dec 18, 2013 News

– Most cases transferred to city
Residents of Kamarang, Region Seven, are pleading with the Government to upgrade their lone health facility and send a qualified doctor to operate in their community. The small Amerindian village, which is home to about 500 persons, is reportedly being served by one Medic who is assisted by two nurses.

Kamarang’s Medic, Brenda Hastings

Medics are often like head nurses, they can provide emergency and basic care, but unlike doctors, medics cannot make diagnosis and issue advance treatment.
During a visit to the area recently, residents confirmed that the health centre has always been incapable of looking after anything beyond basic response.
Some of what is handled at the facility includes the dressing of wounds and the delivering of babies in cases where there aren’t any complications.
According to Brenda Hastings, the community’s medic, many requests have been made to the regional health office, since the need for a qualified doctor is rising daily.
Hastings explained that while there are a few beds at the health centre for persons to be admitted, most cases are transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for proper treatment to be administered there.
The woman said that when this happens, it becomes very expensive for the majority of the villagers to fly to the city, adding that the regional office would usually fund the transportation cost for the persons who are ill, while their relatives would have to pay their own.
However, some villagers had something different to say, noting that oftentimes, they, the family members, would have to transport their loved ones to the city, at their own expense.
One resident, Carl Williams, explained that the regional office does not always refund relatives the money spent to have their loved ones be flown to Georgetown for much needed treatment.
“They does say that they gon give yuh, and many times I know for a fact that they don’t give yuh nothing. Sometimes the people at the Amerindian Hostel does tell you to spend yuh money; that they gon refund yuh, but they don’t,” the resident said.
Meanwhile, Williams, a 39-year-old who has been living in Kamarang all of his life, told Kaieteur News that cost of living has skyrocketed, making it hard for persons traveling out of the village using their own disbursement.
He said that while some situations can be handled in Kamarang or at the regional level, it is necessary that a well-qualified doctor be present in the community.
“It would be sad if we have a big emergency here, because people gon die for sure. Sometimes, well actually most times, we does be like the neglected set of people. Nobody ain’t care about we till up here. What can be worst than living in a place like this without a doctor; we can’t even treat malaria and dem things, and we is the ones living where malaria deh nuff,” Williams stressed.
“Imagine pregnant women and all who does have to be going on them planes with dem big, big belly to land at Ogle and then have to go to Georgetown Hospital, and that, I sure can’t be easy,” the father of one added.
An official from the Health Ministry explained that measures are being put in place for a doctor to be stationed in the area by next month.