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Jul 07, 2017 Editorial, Features / Columnists
There is no disagreement on whether or not the State should provide health care to the people because if the provision of health care is left in the hands of private providers, some life-saving, essential services will not be provided. Furthermore, it will be too costly for the poor.
Health care should be affordable to all, rich and poor alike. But the quest for profit by private health care providers will result in corners being cut in terms of quality service. It will also be a disservice to the poor.
The State must provide health care, due largely to the diminishing purchasing power of the masses, rising inflation and low wages. However, as in many other countries,
Guyanese have a choice between accessing health care in the private or public sector, but those who opt for the former would normally get a rude awakening in terms of cost. They will find the grass is not greener on the other side, because private health care is very expensive.
For decades, services at all the public hospitals throughout the country have been very poor and promises by our politicians to improve them have not materialized.
The fact that the public hospitals simply do not have the resources and medical staff to offer high-quality service to the people is an indictment on the government. Inadequate infrastructure, inefficient systems, shortage of nurses and trained doctors, sloppy management, lack of drugs and poor customer relations are some of the major problems facing the public hospitals.
Too many of the medical staffers at the public hospitals and health care clinics throughout the country are often discourteous to the public. They do not communicate with tact or with sensitivity – given that health issues are involved, and that they are working at a health institution. The support staffers at these facilities appear to be none the wiser.
Many of them berate patients and issue threats to them for asking about the poor services they receive at the hospitals. Questions such as when they would be able to see a doctor or why they have to wait for such a very long time. Being rude and uncaring of the fact that persons who are at a health centre are likely to be ill is unsympathetic.
In a health care environment, this can be disastrously discouraging and sometimes fatal. The issue surrounding many careless deaths at the public hospitals is not whether the Ministry of Public Health is at fault, but rather, whether lessons can be learnt by the hospitals and their administrators on how to prevent such mistakes in future.
In order to provide quality health care to the public, the hospitals must have a staff that anticipates the problems and knows how to treat patients who are in distress.
A few weeks ago, a woman was sent home from the New Amsterdam Hospital after receiving treatment for self-inflicted stab wounds. She died a few hours after, which suggests that the wounds had to be life-threatening. And a little over three months ago, a ten-year-old girl who was violently kicked in the stomach by a male classmate, was treated at the Georgetown Hospital and sent home. She died a few days after. The fact that the girl and the woman were treated and sent away instead of being admitted to the hospital shows that in both cases, the attending officials at both hospitals exhibited gross incompetence.
Too many people continue to die from medical incompetence at the public hospitals, and while the Ministry of Public Health may not be directly responsible, it must share the blame for such undesirable services. Medical incompetence is costing too many lives.
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