THE National Ophthalmology Hospital at Port Mourant, East Berbice, which was constructed at a cost of US$13M, offers assistance not only to Guyanese but to people living overseas as well.
Hospital Director, Mr. Gustavo Vazquez Sarduy, told Minister within the Ministry of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran last Wednesday that the hospital currently has five persons from Suriname, and one from Trinidad awaiting surgery.
With Sarduy’s permission, the Guyana Chronicle spoke with one of the overseas patients, and she was all praise for the doctors at the Hospital.
Fifty-four-year-old businesswoman and mother of one, Juliet Lall, of Sangre Grande in northeastern Trinidad, said she came here three months ago to do surgery, but because of problems with ‘sugar (diabetes)’ and ‘pressure (high blood pressure)’, the procedure has had to be postponed on several occasions.
Lall, who earlier stayed with friends at Goed Fortuin, on the West Bank Demerara, said she learnt of the services being offered at the Port Mourant hospital from her associates in Guyana.
She said that on visiting the Diamond Hospital on the East Bank on March 10, she was referred to the Port Mourant hospital which is better equipped to deal with her particular situation as she has cataract in her right eye and is unable to see out of it.
She said the beauty of it all is that outside of having to pay to extend her stay in Guyana, it doesn’t cost her a cent to have the surgery done.
With particular reference to the hospitality accorded her by staff at the Port Mourant Hospital, Lall said: “Everyone is trying their best here; they are all so concerned about me. From the time I got here, everyone is trying their best to help me. I received very nice treatment; they all check on me often.”
And with respect to how she felt about having the surgery, Lall, who plans on leaving for home today,  said she was not apprehensive at all as a number of persons had assured her that theirs had gone rather well at this hospital, so she was hopeful that hers would be just as successful.
On the financial side, Lall said that in her native Trinidad, it takes one about two years to get an appointment at a public hospital or failing that, about TT$20,000 (the equivalent of a little over US$3,000) to get the surgery done by a private doctor.
Minister Ramsaran, during his tour of the facility Wednesday, was told by the hospital’s director that some 50 surgeries had been done to date in Orealla, including seven for cataract, and that residents there were quite pleased with the results.
He said of the number of surgeries they’ve had scheduled since the hospital was declared open on July 25, 2009, some 200 were not completed because the parties concerned did not keep their appointment dates.
Of the 914 surgeries yet to be completed for the year, he said, some 138 will not get done because of one health complication or the other, while another 72 will suffer the same fate because the hospital was not able to make contact with those patients due to a  change of address or telephone number or both.
According to Sarduy, some 42 patients were called for surgery last Wednesday, but only 11 showed up that day. Among reasons offered for being absent were having to take care of other business, not having leave permission from their employers, and having relatives to care for.
On matters of staffing, Minister Ramsaran assured Mr. Sarduy that the Ministry will work at acquiring more Cuban doctors to assist the 17 already on board at the facility. As an aside, he said one of the things that is encouraging many overseas-based Guyanese to come back home is the significant improvement they’re now seeing here in the delivery of health care among other services.
And touching on the subject of persons not keeping their appointment dates, he said one of the reasons surgery has to be put off at times is because people do not give a hoot about their health.
A medical doctor by profession, the minister said that in many instances, ‘sugar’ and ‘pressure’ are not kept under control as advised, and many do not see the need to cooperate by following instructions given on diet.
The team at Port Mourant also has a medical engineer, who repairs machines and other equipment.
Since the Hospital’s opening, 21,074 patients were seen in consultation, and 8,932 for refraction. 409 screenings were done in Skeldon, Black Bush and Orealla; 1,536 surgeries were done across the regions, including 316 cataract surgeries, 1,119 pterigium surgeries, 52 laser surgeries and 49 minor surgeries.