From to time, consumers and other members of the public tell us about their ailments and the doctors whom they consulted or the hospital they attended. We usually inquired as to what treatments they received and the various fees they paid.
The overwhelming majority of ailments consist of very common ones such as headaches, coughs and colds, sprains and muscular pains, athletes foot, ringworm, dandruff, constipation and diarrhoea, wasps and other insect bites and so on.
Many of those patients who could ill-afford it, go to the private hospitals since there is still the strong pervasive myth that the treatment at the public hospitals is inferior, that only the poor go to the public hospitals and that the wait at the public hospitals is interminable.
Several of our older membership who usually seek medical help from the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) are satisfied with the institution. The hospital staff, especially the younger ones, are always courteous and helpful and the specialist doctors are as able and skilled as any. And the equipment is among the best and of course, tests and other basic medicines are free.
Undoubtedly, waiting time is often very lengthy because of the numbers who go there for medical help. We would recommend to patients who were fearsome of using the GPHC facilities, to try them, especially for referrals.

The main reason why patients to-day overburden both the public and private hospital facilities is simply because any ailment generates fear and even panic among patients and their families since they are unable to differentiate between common ailments and serious ones. Accordingly, thinking they are engaged in a life-saving struggle, they hasten to the private hospitals for immediate treatment, expending money they could ill-afford.
In the last generation, in most Guyanese families, and especially among the women and housewives, there was a fund of basic medical knowledge. They could immediately identify serious illnesses such as chest pains or severe stomach and urinary disorders, render first-aid, and seek immediate medical assistance. Simple ailments were successfully treated at home by the use of well-tried and safe OTC drugs, such as the almost-forgotten humble smelling salts and sulphur drugs, scarcely ever venturing to touch anti-biotics.
And there was always the use of fruit and other herbal items such as ginger, cloves, tumeric, neem, tulsi, mint, limes, papaws, massages of various types, black salt and others. “Bush medicines” were never used by most people because of their uneven effectiveness.
The resuscitation of this culture of medical self-reliance could greatly relieve the overburdened medical services and save many families substantial sums of money, allow families to be more confident in dealing with illnesses and not to be overcome with fear.
This culture which still survives in some country villages could be resuscitated by using several methods. Among them is the professional use of the print and electronic media to educate the population, trying to bring the formal medical profession on board and the availability of practical home nursing and home medicine books at the book shops and public libraries as had been the case in the past. Such books must be differentiated from “alternate medicine” books and would include “First aid manuals.”
Also, such institutions as the Red Cross and the St John’s Ambulance and others should be persuaded to again mount regular and free “first aid” classes. A spin-off for the graduates of such classes is that they could be more easily accepted for training in the nursing profession and could also provide first aid personnel to be employed whenever there are large congregations of people.
(GCA email: patdial26@gmail.com)

By Pat Dial