HEALTH stories are not headline grabbers unless they are bad ones. Reporters tasked with the health beat spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how best to get public attention for a good medical story.

Negative ones — surgery failed, a patient died, the doctor charged with malpractice, the norovirus outbreak at the hospital — tell themselves. Under the PPP/C government, there has been a stark improvement in the healthcare sector, but you couldn’t tell from a daily intake of Guyana’s private media.

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Dr Frank Anthony, Guyana’s Minister of Health, during the “Men on Mission” Father’s Day march in Georgetown. In our brief interaction, Dr Anthony exuded a degree of calm confidence like a doctor who is about to dole out the best news a patient might want to hear. He smiles easily and doesn’t look like someone in a hurry. I’ve never seen him appear impatient or annoyed. Whether he is distributing impregnated mosquito nets or announcing the expansion of healthcare centres nationwide, Dr Anthony appears focused on the task at hand — modernising Guyana’s medical landscape and transforming the country into a healthcare hub for CARICOM states.

When I got bitten by a mosquito late last year and was told by doctors that I had contracted the worst strain of dengue a person could get, I had no idea who the Minister of Health was, even though I was about to harvest the fruits of his work. I lost consciousness and the use of my arms. I was hospitalised and had to receive a blood transfusion to get my blood count up. I was in a total state of panic. Am I getting proper treatment? Will I survive the ordeal?

I wanted to get on the next flight back to Canada, but I was too weak to do so. The nurses and doctors who treated me, first in the emergency unit and during my six nights in hospital, were gracious, kind and diligent. My daughter, concerned for my health, flew in to keep me company and escort me back to Canada where we both felt we would get better medical treatment. It turned out that she too got bitten by a nasty dengue-infected mosquito. Her symptoms got worse on the flight from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

In the days that followed, her symptoms got worse and she went a few times to the hospital and got the same advice and treatment that doctors in Guyana had given me. They monitored her blood count, instructed her to drink loads of fluids and promised the fever would pass within three to five days.

Sometimes fear can cloud our better judgment and cause us to make rash decisions. My bout with dengue focused my attention on the spread of the virus globally. I came to realise that Guyana has some of the most knowledgeable health practitioners when it comes to mosquito-borne illnesses. But why did I doubt that in the first place?

The PPP/C government has been investing a tremendous number of resources into health. The government recently commissioned a state-of-the-art pathology laboratory at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC). The idea is to deliver first-class health services to the people of Guyana. Instead of waiting nearly a month for some test results, urgent tests can now be completed within 24 hours.

The construction of six new hospitals by the end of this year, working in tandem with hundreds of health care centres scattered across the country, even in the hinterland, means that every Guyanese can look forward to receiving far better treatment at zero cost than a person might get in developed countries.

Each of the new hospitals being constructed will have 75 in-patient beds, modern surgical theatres and emergency-treatment facilities.

Dr Anthony is aiming to change the image of medicine in Guyana. He is well aware that early diagnosis means early intervention and that’s the pathway to saving lives. The new GPHC pathology lab will be updating the country’s cancer registry and providing more accurate data for doctors doing cancer research.

Why is all of this important? It is important because the only ones who know how lonely it can be in a hospital ward are those who are there because they require critical care or are relatives of someone requiring critical care.

At times when people are distraught, gazing at a disease or possibly death in the face, no media reporters are circling the bandwagon and certainly no headline chasers to spin a story.

That’s why I believe that Dr Anthony is the sort of hero who gets marginalised when political narratives are constructed. The truth of the matter is that he is using the scalpel in his hands to repair a healthcare system that the previous administration ran into the ground. Dr Anthony’s leadership and management of our healthcare system are making all Guyanese confident that they can get the same, if not better, treatment right here at home should they fall ill.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.