Investing in a healthier Guyana

HEALTH is key to a nation’s socio-economic development and eventual success, for it is about the inherent involvement of the physical and mental health of citizens that are central to daily productivity which makes for economic success. For example, without a healthy workforce, economic production is not assured. However, the truism is that a nation from which the workforce is derived has to be having its medical needs met by a highly competent and professional corps of medical personnel, executing their critical functions in an environment that is adequately funded.
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government understood this imperative from the time it took office, as it inherited a country with a State health infrastructure that had deteriorated to the point of dissipation. Just ask any adult in their 50s about the state back then of the Public Hospital Georgetown (PHG), as it was then named, and they would describe buildings and services that were scandalous.
Of course, to the credit of the prior PNC regime, the Accident and Emergency Unit had already been built. But what about adequate staffing and facilities that made for the proper functioning of such a unit? We all know the answer: They were never provided then.
But it has taken multi-billions, invested by the PPP/C government, to effect the multitudinous changes that have resulted in the many new services and improvements that are now available and accessed by citizens who are in need of medical assistance.
As an indication of this exponential investment, it is instructive that during the period 2009-2014, a total of $97.7B had been allocated towards this sector. Indisputably, no government spends this kind of money because it is available, or for mere grandiose reasons. The fact that it does is because it wants its citizens to have a better service, performed in a satisfactory manner.
It is a legitimate expectation that is to be had of any government, and concomitantly comprehended by health personnel, since government expects quality work for its dollar. Therefore, the still unsettled controversy surrounding the death of four-year old Jaden Mars, who died after receiving medical attention at the Georgetown Public Hospital Georgetown (GPHC) sometime ago, and the most recent death of four-month-old Kevon Critchlow after receiving a vaccine at an East Coast community health centre are unfair to an administration that has been doing so much for better State healthcare delivery to citizens.
And this is not to exclude those maternal deaths that have elicited great concern and strong reprimanding language from the Minister of Health over time. The fact that families, of especially the deceased young, have already taken to publicly expressing their dissatisfaction over what they perceived to have been questionable circumstances as to the deaths of their very young children, should finally signal to the State medical services that better care and professional competency have to be exercised in rendering medical aid.
We are not in any way prejudicing the outcome of whatever investigations are underway in both the cases. It is merely a case of reiterating what we have done in many prior editorials: That health workers should understand and appreciate the grave responsibility endowed them when rendering medical aid to those in need.
Again, government should receive its value for its big dollars invested in the State’s medical services. It has continued to provide the means for a healthier Guyana. Is this so difficult to discern by those entrusted with the care of those who are ill and seek aid?

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