Morucans call for better health services
Residents in the market area of Kumaka, Region One
Residents in the market area of Kumaka, Region One

RESIDENTS of Moruca, Region One, say limited medical services available at the Kumaka District Hospital is forcing them to visit the Suddie Hospital in Region Two or the Georgetown Public Hospital to get medical attention.
And the travel they say is costly. In the Barima-Waini sub-region of Region One, Moruca has been described as a community with limited economic activities and while most of the residents depend on farming, fishing and hunting to earn their daily bread, their pittances have to be used to access basic services such as x- rays, ultra sound, optometry, some laboratory services and surgeries at the Suddie Hospital.
Resident Tricia Rodrigues told the Guyana Chronicle that while these services are available at the Mabaruma Hospital, they are more expensive. She said the cost for one person to travel to Region Two is on average $20, 000, including transportation, meals and accommodation, but excludes the instances where payment is required for medical services.

Tricia Rodrigues

“If you want to do an x-ray we have to go till to Charity and you have to find your own transportation for eye services, on average, if your child fall or you get injure and you go to the Kumaka Hospital, they would tell you, you have to go to Suddie for an x-ray. It is farther to go to Mabaruma and more expensive. Four hours to reach to Mabaruma, ultra sound is another thing. They only come like once or twice a year to do ultra sound at the hospital,” Rodrigues said.
Rodrigues, who was representing the other residents at the time, is calling for the hospital to become more serviceable to them, especially the pensioners who are advanced in age and really cannot afford it, as well as pregnant mothers.
“The pregnant mothers have to be out at Suddie for two- three- four weeks at Suddie because they don’t have the services here,” Manu, another resident said.
The residents are claiming that these complaints were raised on several occasions at public fora, but they are still waiting for the situation to change.
“When they have meetings or when they come, we would bring it to their attention and they would promise and they in time and time would go and time would pass…,” Rodrigues said.
Meanwhile, Regional Executive Officer of Region One, Leslie Wilburg, said residents should remain optimistic that things will change in the sub-region, not only in the health sector, but with public and social facilities and services.
He revealed that currently the x-ray department at the Kumaka Hospital is under construction.
“We are completing the x-ray department here in the Kumaka District Hospital, we have just refurbished the transmission lines so that they can have electricity service there,” the REO said.
The REO also outlined various projects that have been completed in 2017 and are slated for completion in 2018. These include construction of access roads, schools, doctors’ and teachers’ quarters, and community electrification, among other things.
“They can look forward to improved facilities, the water system has been upgraded, electricity will be handled, we are having a programme that cleans the river regularly, we are trying to improve the education facilities, same thing with health,” he said, adding: “We have just completed half a mile of bituminous road and then we are completing the x-ray department here in the Kumaka District Hospital; we have just refurbished the transmission lines, so that they can have electricity service there.”

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