By Vanessa Braithwaite

THE Linden Hospital Complex is not equipped with dialysis and other machines to facilitate patients within Region 10 who have to undergo this very expensive treatment several times per week.Adding to the average transportation cost of $3,000 per day, patients are also burdened with the cost of the dialysis treatment, which this publication was told is $40,000 per treatment.

Linden Mayor Carwyn Holland revealed that 90 per cent of the patients who undergo this treatment are from Linden, hence the need to furnish the Mackenzie Hospital with a machine that will ease the financial and mental burden of travelling to Georgetown for same. The Mayor took the initiative and requested the machine from representatives of the Humanitarian Assistance Programme from the US Embassy during their recent visit to Linden.

He posited that the hospital is not furnished with the dialysis machine among other needed equipment, which results in patients being rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to undergo various procedures and during emergency situations.

The state-of-the-art Linden hospital, he said, should be able to provide these services efficiently, so that residents would not be inconvenienced as a result of travelling to Georgetown.

The Mayor promised to fix this problem early in his tenure, and will be engaging the President and other officials on these issues.
He contends that Linden, being the gateway to the interior, should have a hospital that has relevant facilities to treat patients coming from interior locations, especially in emergency situations; rather than to have them pass Linden and go to Georgetown to obtain the treatment they need.

Mackenzie Hospital Complex board member Jafar Mohammed had revealed to the other board members, on the day that the board was instituted, that many patients are forced to purchase medication from his private pharmacy, and pay for lab services such as kidney testing because the hospital’s machine at that time was out of service.

He posited it as his vision that the new board would have these issues remedied, to make it unnecessary for patients to have to go into their pockets to purchase services that should be available at a modern hospital.

A source close to the hospital, commenting on the issue, said that the purchasing of the equipment, especially the dialysis machine, is in the region’s Five-Year Plan of Action.

The HAP representatives promised to give needed support to the region’s health sector, and will be embarking on a medical outreach in the near future.