Dear Editor,

AS A concerned Guyanese citizen and Reverend, I wish to share my concerns about most of these private hospitals, which charge our people exorbitant medical fees for very simple treatments and tests.Some years ago, when I was living in Berbice, my father suffered a sudden stroke. I rushed him to a private doctor, but this arrogant doctor looked at my father and told me to wait in a line of over 200 patients. I refused. Then he told me to show him a huge amount of money before he would look after my father.

I challenged him, telling him that I could get his licence revoked; then he looked at my dad. The drugs he gave my dad were valued by NIS at $560, yet I paid more than $20,000 for his dead services.

My mother died as a result of her being given a wrong injection by a drunken doctor, yet he charged money to fill out the death certificate documents, even though he was paid when my mother had gone to visit him on the occasion when he gave her the wrong injection.

A few weeks ago, one of my church members was rushed to a private hospital in Georgetown. The man was kept there for only three hours, and was told he was having a first heart attack. They told the man’s wife and children that if they were to keep him at the hospital, he would need to make a payment of $2.2 million cash, which I found very interesting.

Then they sent the man to the GPHC, telling his family they have no heart specialist at their private hospital, but all are at the GPHC.

For the three hours the man was there, they charged $27,000 for just guessing it was a heart failure. If they had no heart specialist, why did they want $2.2 million? Why did they charge $27,000 for doing nothing to the patient?

The man was rushed by ambulance to the GPHC, where he was admitted into the ICU for about six hours. He came out and was talking to his family until 1AM in the night. His family went home, and received a call from the GPHC at 3AM to go to the hospital. Upon their arrival, they discovered their father was dead.

This ‘strong, healthy man’ I had known was just 46 years old, and the doctors said a second heart attack killed him. I was told there was not a proper system in place; for example, a machine that was supposed to monitor the man’s body was not working. Until now, no proper explanation has been given regarding this man’s sudden death.

The first hospital wanted $2.2 million from a poor family to save him. Some other private hospitals they called wanted more.

I know of a pastor who spent a few days at a private hospital before he died, yet the bill was $1.5 million. Another old lady told me she spent four days at a private hospital for tests and minor treatment, yet her family had to pay over $250,000; and her condition got worse, so she came to church for prayer.

I am of the opinion that the medical profession is a noble one, and doctors are bound by the Hippocratic Oath to save lives and not allow money to take precedence over the oath they are bound by. I wish to quote the Hippocratic Oath: “I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant: I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

“I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of over treatment and therapeutic nihilism.

“I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

“I will not be ashamed to say ‘I know not,’ nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

“I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

“I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

“I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

“If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live, and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling, and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help”.

I believe this Oath should be on the walls of every hospital and in ever doctor’s office. For simple illnesses cause people in this country to die because the poor and needy cannot afford the millions these private hospitals are calling for; so they have to go to Government hospitals, where they wait for hours and days, and eventually die.

There is great need for professional medical attention for our citizens. I believe our present administration should give these hospitals a price control chart to follow, and increase their taxes by a 1000 per cent if they fail to follow the price control chart, because they are an affront to the medical profession by just exploiting the public to get rich.

Even rich persons they overcharge because they know those persons are rich, so they inflate their bills. I have discovered that people in the academic world today can do anything without care to get money, even if it costs the life of a person. It’s about time that Government should close down those unscrupulous hospitals and invest in cheaper and professional health care.

Yours truly,
REV. GIDEON CECIL