-reports seeing significant decline in lifestyle diseases
SEVEN overseas-based medical specialists, including surgeons attached to two New Jersey-based outreach organizations, last week conducted a week-long series of free clinics in Berbice and on the West Demerara. The West Demerara leg of the outreach was conducted from October 24 to 27 at the West Demerara Regional Hospital where an approximate 39 surgeries were done with the help of a team of local doctors, anaesthesiologists and ancillary theatre staff.
The ovearseas team was led by Berbician, Dr. James Cort, a native of Fyrish, on the Corentyne, who has been coming here twice yearly for the past four years to conduct free clinics for children and adults in Berbice, under the auspices of the Fyrish/Gibraltar/Courtland Overseas Support Group.
He has since personally adopted the Fyrish Health Centre as his personal project, and commenced an ongoing programme with the medics and ancillary staff there, with the specific objective of inculcating in them patient-education and social mores associated with providing full medical care to the people in their community, utilizing the services of the Centre.
As Dr. Cort observed: “It is important that we work in tandem with the staff who are based here.”  He said he takes every opportunity he can to conduct training programmes and exchange ideas with the clinic’s staff, because it is they who must continue patient treatment in between his bi-annual visits.
He returns to Fyrish each year around April and October, bringing with him many of his colleagues who work at the East Orange, Beth Israel, the St. Barnabas and Clara Maas Medical Centres (as hospitals are called in the US), and other institutions based in boroughs in the US Tri-State area.
Accompanying him on this occasion was a specialist team attached to the 15-year-old Caribbean Medical Association under the leadership of General Practitioner, Dr. Berman Saunders, who is also a founding member of the association.
Caribbean Medical, which is also a not-for-profit organization, has expanded its reach throughout the Caribbean and into Africa. In the past year, the specialists have conducted free clinics in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Dominica, The Dominican Republic, and Grenada. Next year, this team is scheduled to visit rural communities in Belize and St. Lucia.
The specialist team which came here this time around included General Surgeon, Dr. Lennox Alves, who hails from Mahaica, East Coast Demerara; Urologist, Dr. George Johnson, who hails from Pouderoyen, on the West Bank of Demerara; Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr. Ronald Daly, originally from Kingston, here in the city; Paediatrician, Dr. Sandrine Miller, also from Mahaica; and Gynaecologist/Oncologist, Dr. Patrick Anderson, a General Surgeon origionally from Jamaica. Dr. Cort specializes in Internal Medicine.
The team spent three full days in the Lower Corentyne area of Region 6 (East Berbice-Corentyne) conducting clinics for residents in Fyrish, Gibraltar, Courtland and surrounding communities; and at Belladrum, West Coast Berbice, in Region 5 (Mahaica-Berbice).
They simultaneously completed a significant number of surgeries at the New Amsterdam Hospital, and visited the West Berbice Regional Hospital on Wednesday October 25 for surgeries and clinics.
At the end of the mission, they reported attending to many in-patients and out-patients who  had to travel long distances to get to the hospitals and clinics, some coming from as far away as Linden, in the Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) area. They also saw persons from riverine communities along the Berbice River, and from the Essequibo Coast and Islands.
The most prevalent ailments they encountered were those associated with lifestyle diseases common to underdeveloped and developing countries, such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and tumours.
Over the past four years, however, the Fyrish Medical Centre has recorded “an appreciable downward trend in the incidence of these diseases.”  They arrived at this conclusion, using a template designed by Dr. Cort some years ago, which is similar to the laboratory and examination technologies used in modern hospitals in the developed world.
With the aid of this guideline, ancillary staff at the Centre were able to conclude that cholesterol levels on a broad scale have dropped, and that there are fewer cases of critical illnesses related to high blood pressure and diabetes.
This heartening development was also the result of an intense programme of patient education, which included wide distribution of pamphlets and posters with tips and advisories on diet, exercise, and the deleterious effects of smoking and heavy consumption of alcohol.
The advisories also comprised suggestions for lifestyle changes that have been specifically tailored for residents of agriculture-based communities.
The template at reference is so designed; it gauges the progress of each patient, based on the treatments and medication they have been receiving over stipulated periods. According to Dr. Cort, doctors on his team ensure that the medicines they source overseas are comparable to what is available in Guyana, or those that could be easily accessed elsewhere. He was surprised that the local medical community, across the board, uses the same medicines as those available in the USA, which, he said, makes it easier to select.
He was also extremely pleased to learn from laboratory technologist Loxley Lambert, an ancillary staff at the Fyrish Medical Centre, that the centre’s patients now know how to control their cholesterol levels and improve the quality of their lives. This is testimony, he said, to the effectiveness of their overall healthcare programme, which was introduced more than three years ago.
The services that the specialists provide, though free in Guyana, come at a considerable cost.  Medical supplies are purchased with donations from members of the US chapters of both organizations, and from the considerable West Indian population resident in the Tri-State area.
Their annual fundraisers include an all-white boat cruise in July, and a gala Black -tie affair that has been held every year for the past eight years.  These events bring in significant proceeds, which help to pay for shipping the medical supplies, and for travel, accommodation, and sundry expenses.
The specialists all expressed their gratitude to HPS, Dr. Roger Luncheon, to Minister in the Health Ministry, Dr. Bheri Ramsarran, and to Dr. Narine Singh, who lent tremendous support to the Mission and have pledged to continue to assist the Caribbean Medical Mission and the Fyrish/ Gibraltar/Courtland Medical Overseas Support Group.
The local chapter, the membership of which includes Clinton Williams, CEO of GNIC and President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), has also been playing a meaningful role in providing logistical support to the Mission.
In 2010, the overseas-based Guyanese doctors held similar clinics in Kitty and Campbellville, in Georgetown; and at Aurora and Charity, on the Essequibo Coast.
Another specialist team is expected in April 2012, and the schedule for surgeries and community clinics is already being worked out by Dr. Cort.