Dear Editor,
REGION Two will never be able to get another patriotic person like Mr Deleep Singh.I heard so much good things about this popular businessman from Charity. I cannot help risking repetition of the awesome one-man crusade by Mr. Singh, whom I was made to understand spent millions of dollars of his own money to fix the Intensive Care Unit and the Registry at the Suddie public hospital. On his visit one day to the hospital he saw that gutters were falling off from the rooftop; it was an unholy sight to the public, doctors, nurses and the administrators .The ICU and the Registry were no different;there were no air-conditions for the patients coming out from the operating theatre.
Mr Singh decided to buy the air-conditioners and tiles for the ICU.He mobilised his own carpenters and technicians to fix both.It was a good investment for both patients ,doctors and nurses who are working 24/7 in the ward as well as for the clerk doing the medical record-keeping.
As a patient in the ICU for four days and night, I saw how clean and tidy the Cubans are keeping this unit. Every half an hour they will mop the floor and keep it sanitized, avoiding any bacteria. The beds and sheets are well cleaned and the doctors are well trained in patient care.
I can say this without any reservation because I saw it in Ruby Hall Super specialty hospital in India where I was a patient for two months and I know what is top class medicare. The Cubans counterparts cannot compare with them, except for those who came from the old nursing school.
Essequibo needs a state-of-the-art flat hospital; the one presently in use at Suddie is over 100 years old with no improvement. We need a hospital which offers the advantages of the most advanced technology combined with a compassionate treatment approach to patients. The problem with this hospital is that it doesn’t have a proper functional and experience management committee to put policy in place to correct the faults. No one knows who they can complain to. The past management committee under Ms. Nandranie Coonjah was doing an excellent job and the hospital was being managed better.
There are no daily group discussions under the chairmanship of the committee, which is looking into difficult cases to give patients the advantage of the pooled knowledge of experts in several disciplines.
In addition no clinical meetings are held as part of the hospital’s continuing medical education programme where papers are presented by consultants. There are no attempts by the Ministry of Public Health to train aspiring students to become competent nursing professionals.
No library is in this hospital nor reading room with books of all nursing and allied subjects and also books of general knowledge and language books. There is no Internet facilities and digital library.
Coming back to Mr. Deleep Singh, there are many more big businessmen like him who can help to adopt a ward or two but they choose not to do so. When they get ill they will go to a private hospital in Georgetown or out of the country for treatment.
I think over $2.3 billion was budgeted in 2013 for a state-of- the art specialty surgical hospital at Suddie. The government should use Indian government loan for this purpose. With all the billions which was expended in the health sector and training of public health personnel, health facilities all over the country are in a bad shape. Where is the $2.3 billion which was allocated in 2013 for the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of the health infrastructure countrywide?
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan