COVID-19 test results now sent directly to doctors

After public pressure

After mounting criticism and pressure from various stakeholders over the fact that the results from the COVID-19 tests are being sent to caretaker Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence instead of going back to the doctors, who are treating the patients, the situation has seen improvements.

This is according to Chairman of the Guyana Medical Council, Dr Navindranauth Rambaran. He told Guyana Times on Wednesday, “My feedback from commissioners is that is has certainly improved.”
Earlier this week, Dr Rambaran had told this newspaper that the Council had wrote Lawrence on Monday, “raising concerns about the delay in the return of results to the doctors and we asked that she look into that.”
According to the Chairman, the letter to Lawrence was not crafted for a response to the Council. In fact, he noted that that the response they are seeking is for actions to be taken and this has been done with the test results now being made available directly to the doctors.
Last weekend, Dr Frank Anthony, a former Government minister and a doctor himself, had condemned the involvement of the minister in the process. A part from the fact that the minister is not a medical professional, he noted that the delays of the results getting back to the doctors, which is sometimes 48 hours, endangered the lives of not only the patients but the medical staff as well.
According to Dr Anthony, it makes a big difference when the medical staff knows about the status of the patients they are dealing with.
Another bureaucracy in the system, he had disclosed is the fact that when samples, from both private and public hospitals, are sent to the National Public Health Reference Laboratory – housed at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) – for testing, then a request first has to be made to the Minister’s office and only when permission is granted then the test is conducted.
Moreover, Dr Anthony – who is one of the key stakeholders in the National COVID-19 Response Forum that was established by the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to tackle the spread of the deadly virus – further contended that the process dealing with who gets the test, that is, the criteria for testing is flawed.
Meanwhile, Dr Vindhya Persaud, a former opposition parliamentarian, had also weighed in on the situation regarding the results, saying it is not only disturbing but completely unacceptable.
In a social media post, Dr Persaud argued that “This clamp down attitude is endangering healthcare workers and delaying the care that patients may need based on test results… this is not politics, this is life!”
These issues have even attracted concerns from stakeholders outside the medical profession. In fact, Secretary of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookhoo, wrote the Chairman of the National COVID-19 Taskforce, caretaker Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, on Tuesday, seeking clarity.
In the letter, Dookhoo said that it was brought to the Commission’s attention that a patient with identifiable symptoms of being infected with COVID-19 cannot be tested until the doctor has written to Lawrence, requesting permission to test and that it takes three to four days to receive a response from the minister. He added further that when the results of the test confirm the condition of the patient, which is about seven to eight hours after the test is done, the results are not only first sent directly to the minister but approval must first be given by her before the attending doctor administers treatment.

“We are reliably informed that this political intervention by the Minister of Public Health to exercise authority over an entirely medical matter has already resulted in the loss of life of a patient. I, therefore, write to seek immediate clarity as to whether this, in fact, is the protocol in place at the Hospital for the testing and administering of treatment for a COVID-19 patient. I am, further, requesting that the public is immediately informed with regard to the protocols being applied at the Georgetown Public Hospital with regard to the examination, testing and treatment of a patient reporting identifiable symptoms of the COVID-19 virus and deemed by medical personnel to require testing and treatment,” the PSC official said in the correspondence to Nagamootoo.
He went onto say, “I must point out that, as an officially appointed member of the Task Force, I am duly entitled to a prompt response and that I will feel free to raise this matter as a public concern if I do not receive a clear and prompt response.”