WHILE it cannot be denied that public health care delivery in Guyana has

much room for improvement, equally it is undeniable that there has been unprecedented and significant improvements in recent years, particularly with respect to specialised services.
But what is evident and welcome is that the government has demonstrated an unswerving commitment to continuously upgrade and improve the quality and accessibility to health care delivery for all Guyanese.
The facts bear testimony to this as the government, since ascension to office following the historic October 5, 1992 election, has been increasing budgetary allocations for the health sector every year.
But it has not only been increasing funds to the sector, it has also been working persistently to strengthen and enhance the human resource capacity and management and administration of hospitals, health centres and all other agencies associated with the health sector through continuous training programmes, both local and foreign.
In this regard, the Cuban medical scholarship programme brokered between former Presidents Fidel Castro and Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, undoubtedly has been a tremendous boost to our public health care system. In addition, the system is further being boosted by foreign medical brigades from Cuba and China.
However, it has not been a case of simply increasing the number of medical personnel in the system. On the contrary, several specialised services are now available, which hitherto was previously unavailable in the public health care system, through the establishment of, among other things, a Burns Unit, Ophthalmological Centre at Port Mourant and a Cardiology Centre (Caribbean Heart Institute, located at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation). As regards the latter, the first heart surgery locally was successfully carried out at this institution several years ago.
Only recently a modern medical warehouse was opened at Diamond, East Bank Demerara to improve storage capacity of medical supplies as well as making the distribution process of same more efficient and effective.
When the specialty hospital is completed, that will be a tremendous boost to our health care delivery and would also open a new window of opportunity to develop medical tourism which is increasingly becoming a new venture to boost the economies of many countries, India being a major player in this respect.
However, two areas of concern within our public health care system are the functioning of hospitals on weekends and holidays and the unprofessionalism of some of our medical personnel.
With respect to the former, members of the public sometimes complain about experiencing difficulties in accessing prompt and adequate service at the various hospitals, some more prevalent than others, and this should not be the case because illnesses and emergencies could occur at anytime. As such, hospitals should be functioning at optimal levels seven days per week, 24 hours per day. On the latter, without elaborating, the attitude and unprofessionalism of some medical personnel are far from what it should be.
In recent years, an encouraging development has been the upsurge in the growth of private medical institutions in Guyana.
While these institutions will be inevitably used by the affluent sections of our society, at the same time they reduce some of the pressure from the public health care institutions.
However, some of these private health care institutions are working towards bringing down the cost of providing services. A case in point is the Doobay Medical Centre where dialysis is being provided at a cost of $15,000 per session and free of cost to those genuinely in need, but cannot afford it.
According to the founder of the institution Dr Budhendra Doobay, more than 35 percent of the centre’s patients are granted amnesty from medical fees.
“Dialysis patients don’t only have kidney disease; they come with a gamut of other diseases. They have heart diseases, they are diabetics, they get stroke…health care should be extended to every person despite their affordability,” Dr Doobay said.
Recently, President Donald Ramotar assisted in the sod turning to begin an expansion of the Doobay Medical Centre which means more people will eventually be able to access services there.
This is a most commendable venture and should be emulated by others within the medical profession, as the main goal of our health care system is to ensure that every Guyanese has access to quality health care regardless of their financial circumstances.