A tour of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Wednesday by the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Social Services could have gone awry when the Chairperson, Dr Vindhya Persaud broke with the agenda and visited the hospital’s storage bond – something which management said should not have happened as a visit to that facility was not part of the schedule.
The bond is currently undergoing major repairs and hospital officials said staffers were not informed of any visit by the PSC as this was not the arrangement with Parliament. However, Persaud is contending that the committee had written to see the entire hospital “and I think we should have been allowed to see the entire hospital…”
The hospital’s bond has attracted some attention in recent days with claims and counter claims by the GPHC and New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation over damaged drugs. Sources said this would have more than likely influenced Dr Persaud’s impromptu visit to the bond even though she knew it was not part of the committee’s visiting schedule. Dr Persaud is a Member of Parliament for the PPP- a party that is closely aligned to the New GPC.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings and Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Valerie Lowe, who are also members of the Committee insisted that the Chair should have stuck to the agenda, contending that the bond was not among the units listed to be visited.

During the initial stage, the Chairperson of GPHC Board, Kesaundra Alves had announced that the tour would have been confined to four departments – Accident and Emergency, Surgical Outpatient, Cardiac ICU and the Pediatric Unit. But despite their pleas, Dr. Persaud proceeded to the storage bond to have a firsthand look of the storage conditions there. The ministers had remained in the compound of the hospital.
During her discussions with the Acting Pharmacy Manager Yvonne Bullen, she was asked by Alves to proceed downstairs. Alves murmured that the hospital’s administration was not informed of the visit to the bond and the staff was not prepared. This, however, did not deter Dr. Persaud, who stated that the when Parliament wrote GPHC, the intention was not to visit sections of the hospital but the entire facility. “We can’t store six months’ supply here, maybe about two months. Because the building is wooden we have to be very cautious,” the Acting Pharmacy Manager told the head of the parliamentary committee during their brief interaction.
When the issues surrounding the damaged drugs were raised, the Acting Pharmacy Manager indicated that a fresh batch of paracetamol 500mg tablets were supplied by New GPC on Tuesday afternoon, even as the hospital await the arrival of the 14 bottles of soda lime.
But before Dr. Persaud could have wrapped up her discussion with Bullen, GPHC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Allan Johnson, who was also a part of the tour, asked that the dialogue be discontinued so that Dr. Persaud along with other persons who were in the bond, to proceed down stairs. “We are being asked to go downstairs, Mrs. Bullen could you allow them to go,” Johnson said while informing Dr. Persaud, that “the Minister” wanted the tour of that facility to be discontinued. “I am the chair, not the Minister,” Persaud said in response to Johnson.
Subsequently, Dr. Persaud told reporters that she should not have been prevented from inspecting the bond, stating that she has a mandate to the people of Guyana. “It is not something that should have been done because as the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee we have written to see the entire hospital and I think we should have been allowed to see the entire hospital, so I don’t think that was well done,” she posited.
“It makes you wonder, why they don’t want you to see certain places,” she added. At the end of the tour, Alves acknowledged that the bond is not 100 per cent as it is currently undergoing remedial works. “I would say the bond is doing the best it could,” Alves told reporters while noting that plans are in place to raise its standards. Weighing in on the issue, Minister Cummings said too that the bond is undergoing remedial works, while pointing out that there are also the Sussex Street and Kingston bonds. Funds she said, have been budgeted for the rehabilitation of the Kingston Bond.