New Amsterdam Hospital successes vindicate Government’s National Health Plan

– so say beneficiaries
Development with a human face predominates over all the successes of governmental endeavour throughout the land, and of revitalized initiatives in the health sector, culminating in the formulation of projected strategies encapsulated in a comprehensive National Health Plan, driven in tranches by successive Ministers of Health in the current administration.


Implementation of the Plan was multi-pronged and the thrust took on a momentum, similar to the original Janet Jagan-driven health sector reform of the first PPP administration that reached into the heart of the remotest regions in efforts to ensure that the most accessible-challenged citizens of Guyana receive adequate healthcare.

I owe my life, certainly my sanity (the little I have), to this renewed dynamism in the sector, because it is only the readily-available facilities and medication, as well as the knowledgeable medical personnel, that saved my life and my mental faculties when I received severe head injuries from an accident in a remote location, to which I had taken media personnel to cover an event.

That the hospital in Kwakwani was so adequately equipped to provide primary intervention that stopped the bleeding in my brain, which was destroying neurons at a rapid rate, until I was airlifted out to the primary institution and more specialized care, is my first-hand experience and testimony to the success of the Government’s drive to restore essential services to benefit the citizens of this land.

And within this landscape is one of the most brilliant jewels that crown the achievements of the national health sector – the New Amsterdam hospital.

To tell the story of the administration’s comprehensive health programme for the nation, generally, and Region Six in particular, would require many visits to Region Six of a lengthier duration.

Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, CEO of the New Amsterdam Hospital, asserted that “Healthcare is a fundamental social right and good health a priority pillar on which a nation’s capacity is built.”

Dr. Mahadeo told the Chronicle that, focal to the total healthcare programme, is the preventative component, which assumes the format of anticipatory interventions and constructive mechanisms to inhibit threats to the individual and collective health of the citizens of the respective communities in each locale.

This is imperative to the success of the Berbice Regional Health Authority’s (BRHA’s) strategic Five-Year-Plan, as well as the 3-yr Business programme, which are direct offshoots of the National Health Plan, modified to address the peculiar needs within the demographics of individual Region Six communities, according to Dr. Mahadeo.

Capacity-building through training is an integral component in the implementation processes of optimal service-delivery by the BRHA, and this is pursued aggressively so that staff members at every level, and from the various departments, are kept abreast of latest developments, technologies, and methodologies in their areas of expertise.

Training of requisite skills to selected members of the various communities also help to expand and boost the quality of healthcare services provided by the BRHA.  This assists the institutions in the areas of advocacy, counselling, and extended healthcare delivery without diminishing the level of services and manpower provided at the various health facilities.

The concern of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of BRHA, Mr. David Armogan, as expressed to the Chronicle in an earlier interview, that people perceive the free services provided by the New Amsterdam Hospital as inferior services, was not validated by the sentiments of most persons interviewed by the Chronicle team, all of whom were very laudatory of the services provided by the facility.

They are also high in praise of the support services that they assert are competently provided by the Pharmacy, Laboratory, X-ray, Audiology/Ear, Nose, and Throat, and Dental Health Departments.

Equipment provision and maintenance has been prioritized and, with the acquisition of testing facilities to do mammograms, Berbice is rapidly minimizing the need for  its citizens to seek medical care and surgical interventions elsewhere, especially in the capital city.

Statistically, the successes in the various areas of service provided by the New Amsterdam primary health facility compare favourably with any other health institution, even surpassing in some major instances.

The outreaches to the schools in the region and the prison, with provision of regular healthcare interventions, is an investment that will redound, in the long-term, to the benefit of the national coffers, by way of reduced instances of illnesses and a consequential reduction in expenditure in the health and social sectors.

As an adjunct to this initiative are the services provided by the Family Welfare Clinic, which is located in the compound of the former N/A Hospital building, and which provides counselling and care for patients with a variety of ailments.  They also do home visits, which compound the effectiveness in their healthcare delivery, as they bond with their patients in the personal and intimate ambience of family and home.

The Rehabilitation Department is a necessary facilitator to optimal patient recovery for many injuries and/or ailments, and the expansion of this department and the services provided have been welcomed by those who have benefited from the ministrations provided therein, which have generally restored and/or improved the quality of life of stricken patients.

The Eyecare Unit has also restored and/or improved the sight of many grateful citizens, many of whom said that, previously, they had no option but to “bear their chafe”, because they could not have afforded the prohibitive charges of private optical institutions.

The facility also provides for major surgeries to be done, which have most likely saved the lives of many who may not have lived long enough to reach the city.

The other facility visited, which was the Skeldon Hospital, has a complement of staff on standby for emergencies, but the empty beds in the very clean and comfortable hospital attested to the fact that most Berbicians prefer to be treated at the new state-of-the-art New Amsterdam Hospital.

When we arrived at the New Amsterdam Hospital, the waiting area was packed, and I immediately thought that this was an all-day-into-the-evening affair.

To my amazement, when we emerged after a few hours, the waiting area was practically empty, attesting to the efficiency of the system and personnel attending the patients at the facility.

Berbice is the home of my heart, and in my experience, there is no one with the charming friendliness of a Berbician.

There is no community that generally takes care of its own like Berbicians do, irrespective of race or religion; and there is no one more friendly and helpful to a visitor as a Berbician is; and these are the factors that I think are the primary contributors to the success of healthcare in the region, because the caregivers are generally so caring and courteous that almost no one feels uncomfortable in seeking assistance from healthcare providers – at any level, in the New Amsterdam Hospital and its ancillary arms.

Of course there are the cuckoos in the nest, but Dr. Mahadeo is adamant that anyone found culpable of ill-treating patients, or of providing less than optimum care to patients at any of the healthcare institutions falling within the mandate of the Berbice Regional Health Authority, will be severely sanctioned, because the administration considers sacred the principles enshrined in their general modus operandi
in patient care, which are driven by the ideals that the views and the needs of the population should determine the functional operations of the Authority.

But I reiterate that the success in healthcare provided by Berbician health workers is second to none, and that, coupled with an administration that is committed, accountable, and continuously strategizes to optimize the health services in the region, are the definitive factors that determine the thrust eventuating in such overwhelming satisfaction in the citizenry of the region in the provision of services in their own primary health institution.

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