For months, the Issano Health Post has been operating without basic medical supplies. Over at the Kurupung Health Post, the situation is even worse. Health workers operating out of the dilapidated health facility have for years been battling with a shortage of drugs and medical supplies, lack of electricity and potable water, and the transportation system, leaves much to be desired. It has been more than five years since Kurupung was visited by a Health Minister or Regional Health Officer, residents say.

On Thursday, the residents of the mining communities, situated along the Middle Mazaruni River in Region Seven, pleaded with Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes, to make representation on their behalf to the relevant Ministers of Government and regional officials – a task she has since committed to do.
David Joseph, the lone health worker stationed at the Issano Health Post, said it has been more than two months since he made a requisition for medicine and medical supplies to replenish his already depleted dispensary. To date, he is still waiting.
“I have requested (medical supplies) but there is nothing I can do, if we don’t get the supply…we don’t even have simple things like panadol or medicine to treat the malaria patients,” Joseph complained.
The health worker, who is also a village councillor, said it was only last Wednesday that he wrote the Regional Medex Sharon Hope on the issue, with the hope that she would make an intervention.
At the health post, Joseph is assisted by his son Leonard Joseph; a trained lab technician. But there is not much Leonard can do now since his supplies too are low.
Additionally, it has been over two years since the health post’s radio system is down, and as such, the health worker is unable to communicate with his superiors in Bartica in cases of emergency.
“The other thing is, we have a medical boat and I would use my engine to transport patients and do field work but the condition of the boat ain’t nice at all. Whenever we have to use it, it is like a suicide mission we are on,” he told the minister.
SORE ISSUE
Alluding to a problem affecting the wider community of Issano, Joseph said water pollution is a major issue. According to the village councillor, mining activities in Issano by non-residents have been a sore issue for years.

“We really having a heavy water pollution problem…The Tassarine Creek is our main source of water but now if you go there, the water milky, milky… sometimes you have to travel about four miles, just to get some clean water,” Joseph complained.
This problem, he said, was raised with the miners operating land dredges but to no avail.
At Kurupung, which is situated near the Pakaraima Mountains and more than three hours away from Issano by river, the health post is managed by two health workers.
According to one of the health workers Janelle Johnson, the health post lacks basic amenities.
“We don’t have basic things…we don’t have medicine, we don’t have tablets, we don’t have injections, we don’t even have a bed, only a bed frame, and we are desperately in need of a doctor. For the past five years, it has just been the two of us but we need a doctor here,” Johnson told Guyana Chronicle.
She said last December the health post received some medication but only for the chronic disease patients who all have high blood pressure. It was noted that whenever medicine and medical supplies are sent from Bartica through the Regional Democratic Council or the Public Health Ministry, the health workers would have to pay for the supplies to be transported from Olive Creek to Kurupung, and according to them, it is usually very difficult to get a refund.
NO EQUIPMENT
In a mining community where malaria is very prevalent, there is no equipment to do the required tests.

“About two years now the microscope is out of service, and it not like we haven’t been reporting these matters, we have,” she said.
Additionally, with the solar power system being down for more than five years, Johnson and her colleague Shondel Abrams, in cases of emergency would have to attend to patients with torch lights at nights. However, there are times when the Guyana Geology and Mines (GGMC) Office would provide the health post with electricity.
Abrams said it is clear that the village of Kurupung has been neglected. “The other thing, very important to us, this is going to be six years we are working here and no health minister or regional health ever visited us. Last year they promised to come and never came.”
In addition to the plethora of health issues facing the village, is the fact that it has no school.
“There is a building, there was school functioning when I came to Kurupung nine years back, but it closed now,” Natasha Singh told this newspaper. During the visit, several school-aged children were seen around the village. Singh, who has a child attending school outside of the village, said it is very costly.
“I would like for you to take a look at your health situation in this community, please, do that for us, please, please do, schools…. If you could do something about our schools too, we will be glad, we will be glad, even if we have five children going to school in this community, we will be glad, I could even tell you right now from this community we will be having a doctor, (who) will be returning to Guyana pretty soon, come from this community, so I am asking please to look at these two things, our health and the hospital, so please, do that also, it

might not be in your Ministry but please have a word,” another resident pleaded with junior Natural Resources Minister Simona Broomes, who recently visited the community.
Minister Broomes, upon hearing the concerns of the residents of both villages, committed to discuss the issues with the relevant ministers. She said while there is no doubt that these villages were neglected in past, the Government of the day will be putting the necessary systems in place to provide a better life for residents.
The Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources said the Public Infrastructure Ministry is currently rehabilitating the Kurupung Airstrip, and would soon look into the issues of road, health and education facing residents.