…to address drug shortage, workers’ condition

A MEDICAL team is expected to visit the Middle Mazaruni this week to address a range of problems facing health workers in the mining district.

The visit comes on the heels of a report published in this newspaper, which painted a grim picture of the challenges and problems being experienced by health workers in Issano and Kurupung, in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni District. Chief among the issues is shortage of drugs and medical supplies.

Health workers operating the two health posts had said they were battling with a shortage of drugs and medical supplies, lack of electricity and potable water, and the transportation system leaves much to be desired.

On Monday, the Regional Chairman (Region Seven), Gordon Bradford, told Guyana Chronicle that the medical team will be headed by the Regional Health Officer (RHO), Dr. Edward Sagala. The RHO will be accompanied by the Hospital’s Administrator, Merlyn Ferreira; a Junior Department Sister, Patricia Smith; Supervisor of the Vector Control Unit, Nathalie Griffith; and Medex Ishan Persaud of the Maternal and Child Health Department.

According to Bradford, drugs and medical supplies were sent up to communities in the Middle Mazaruni area ahead of the visit.

The team is expected to visit Kurupung, Issano and Isseneru. “They will be walking with a full team to assess the situation in the entire Middle Maz and to carry out a medical outreach,” Bradford posited.

Bradford told this newspaper that the news about the challenges faced in the identified villages came as a major surprise, since he is in constant contact with the affected health workers. According to him, when matters pertaining to health and other critical areas come to his attention he would often take the necessary steps to correct the situation.

David Joseph, the lone health worker working at the Issano Health Post, had told this newspaper that the health post was running low on supplies, given that a request was made more than two months prior to the interview.

Additionally, it has been over two years since the health post’s radio system is down, 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 aint nice at all. Whenever we have to use it, it is like a suicide mission we are on,” he had told Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, who was visiting the village at the time.

At Kurupung, the health post lacked basic things. “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 indeed of a doctor. For the past five years, it has just been the two of us, but we need a doctor here,” Janelle Johnson, one of the health workers, had said.

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.

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.