By Vanessa Braithwaite

RESIDENTS of Ituni are calling on the Regional Health Department to substitute or post an assistant for the 70-year-old medic at the Ituni Health Centre.According to Regional Vice Chairman, Elroy Adolph residents described the medic as ‘scratchity’ and miserable”.

Adolph related that though the residents honour the medic for her 45 years of selfless service to the community, it is time she retires as age is getting the best of her and the residents are facing the consequences of it.

Residents, the Regional Vice Chairman said, have recommended that another capable medic joins her as the burden of tending to a community of 800-1000 residents has become very challenging.

“One man was unconscious and they rushed him to the facility and her words to them were ‘I eating lunch now, you gotta wait’ and she sat there and when she finish eating her lunch then she came to attend to him,” Adolph said.

He added that by this time, the man was already transported to Linden.

Adolph reasoned that with the availability of 50 doctors in Region 10, one of them can be sent to Ituni to help with the situation.

“Can we get one to go to Ituni to assist the worker there that is aging? She is slow…. If we have doctors in Linden attending the patients, I think we need such in the outskirt areas,” he said.

Regional Health Officer, Dr Pansey Armstrong told the Guyana Chronicle that a medic has been identified for the Ituni Health Centre, but has not yet been posted.

Meanwhile, councillors from the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) are calling on officers within the Region 10 Health Department to fix the poor working conditions at several health centres.

The call was made following a visit to health facilities in the region to have a first-hand look of what was reported by several health workers.

The councillors found conditions ranging from compounds filled with bush and garbage; none or limited water supply, forcing the health workers to fetch water; no working lights, and no automatic back up electricity system. These conditions, the councillors claimed to be at the One Mile Health Centre, the Old England Health Centre, the Wisroc Health Centre and the Viviene Parris Health Centre.

The councillors, at their recently held statutory meeting claimed that the health workers complained that officers from the Regional Health Department hardly visit these centres. “The Health Department has to step up to the plate… what are the health people doing… the people (health workers) are saying that the people don’t care a damn and when you write, no proper response ,” one councillor said.

Several councillors also made claims of health workers complaining of receiving threats of being transferred from those in authority for speaking out on the conditions they are forced to work under.

Regional Chairman Renis Morian said the situation is troubling.

“What is disturbing is that when workers are asking for things to upgrade, people high up getting vex, why you getting vex, that is your job, you have been placed there to better the facilities… nurses and support staff shouldn’t feel threatened,” Morian said.