THE Ministry of Health, on Sunday, received heartbreaking news of the passing of one of its finest and most dedicated medical professionals of more than 50 years, Dr. Ramsundar Doobay.

“One of the indelible images in many persons’ memories of GPHC is walking into the medicine wards and seeing a simple, unassuming man finding a corner of a patient’s bed to tuck himself in, sitting, talking to the patient, assuring the patient and teaching doctors,” a press release from the ministry said.

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony and the Health Ministry said the news of the passing of Dr. Doobay, MBBS, MRCP had been received with absolute shock and sadness, although the ministry had known about his battle with illness several months before.

Dr. Doobay was said to be gifted with an intellect that was the envy of many. He was brilliant but remained at all times a simple, humble gentleman.

According to the Health Ministry, in his early years with poor infrastructure in the health sector, with access to little or no technology and few journals, Dr. Doobay awed his local and visiting colleagues with the depth of his knowledge of medicine.

“He was always up to date with developments in medicine, with new medications and new scientific findings. His main activity outside of the hospital was his incessant reading of journals and documents relating to medicines. As journals began to appear online, ‘Doobs’ would spend most of his spare time lost in the pages of these journals,” the ministry said.

“Doobs”, as his colleagues and friends often referred to him, started his career in Guyana in the late 1960s where he joined other illustrious medicine professionals. He started his career under the illustrious Dr. Enid Denbow in November 1968 at the age of 26 and quickly began to make his mark on the medical profession and service in Guyana.

CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONAL
Among his early colleagues would have been Dr. Roger Luncheon with whom Doobs shared a personal and strong friendship and bond. By the 1970s, he had become the Head of the Department of Internal Medicine, a position he served until he was requested to relinquish it in 2016. At various times he served as Medical Superintendent of the Public Hospital Georgetown (PHG) and acted as Director of Medical and Professional Services at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) when the PHG became a public corporation.

Dr. Doobay is one of the few medical professionals who served the public sector throughout his career. While he did serve in the private sector at institutions such as the Balwant Singh Hospital, he never sacrificed his duty in the public sector for private practice.

While he departed from GPHC in 2016, he did not allow this to stop him from practising medicine. He continued serving people at the Doobay Hospital in Annandale, East Coast Demerara, a hospital founded by his cousin.

TEACHER AND MENTOR
Outside of his service to thousands of citizens that he diagnosed and treated, he served the people of Guyana by teaching and mentoring hundreds of young doctors. He also served as a professor in the School of Medicine of the University of Guyana for more than three decades.

Additionally, he mentored hundreds of interns at the GPHC and, when Guyana introduced post-graduate training, he was one of the pillars of the post-graduate training programme. Indeed, both the internship and post-graduate internal medicine programmes benefitted from indispensable contributions from Dr. Doobay.

Dr. Doobay molded the career of many young and experienced doctors who today serve and who served in the past in medicine in Guyana and many countries around the world.

He played a major role in the early introduction of treatment guidelines for diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart diseases, asthma, liver diseases, cancer, kidney diseases, lung diseases, neurological diseases and various infectious diseases, such as leptospirosis, and exposure to toxic chemicals in Guyana, the ministry said.

The elaborate guidelines that are now available to both young and experienced doctors in various areas of medicine were initially developed with considerable contributions from Dr. Doobay.

“Beginning in the 1970s and particularly in the beginning of the 21st century, Dr. Doobay was instrumental in the reorganisation of medical clinics, medical wards, and the ICU at the PHG and then the GPHC. These models are being further improved today and are the models for hospitals across the country,” the release stated.

Dialysis is today, a routine service in Guyana, but long before dialysis was introduced in country, Dr Doobay introduced peritoneal dialysis in the 1970s in medicine in Guyana. In fact, without access to peritoneal dialysis in 2005 at the GPHC, dozens of people would have died from leptospirosis resulting from the big flood of 2005.

Dr. Doobay’s contributions to health and medicine in Guyana is unsurpassed and will live on as a legend in this country, said the Health Ministry, pointing out that, on behalf of the entire health sector, it expresses profound sympathies to Dr. Doobay’s family and friends.

Meanwhile, the board of directors, management and staff of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) also joined the medical fraternity in extending deepest condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of Dr. Doobay.