Leguan Cottage Hospital without doctor for almost 1 week

The Leguan Cottage Hospital has been without a doctor for the past week and according to residents, they are forced to travel to the Leonora Cottage Hospital or the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) to access basic health care.
One resident, Hans Buer, said there were two residential doctors at the Hospital, and one requested and was granted a transfer while the other remained on the island. However, for almost a week the institution has been without a doctor.
“Patients now have to go to the mainland for treatment. It is well known that Leguan doesn’t have a reliable ferry service to Parika. How the patients will reach now to a hospital on the mainland in time? The promised better health care for patients doesn’t reach Leguan,” Buer said in a social media post.
When Guyana Times visited the island on Saturday, residents said the Hospital usually has no problems apart from the issue of the doctor being absent. They related that they would be able to access emergency services and medication, but would have to travel to WDRH or Georgetown Public Hospital for specialised treatment.
When contacted, Regional Health Officer of Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Dr Ravendra Dudhnath told this publication that doctors were supposed to be stationed at the , adding that as far as he was aware, there were currently doctors in Leguan.
However, he declined to give any additional information as it relates to the number of doctors and directed all further questions to the Public Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, Junior Public Health Minister, Dr Karen Cummings told this newspaper that she was unaware of such an issue at the Leguan Cottage Hospital, and promised to have the incident investigated. Several calls to the Minister for a follow-up on the issue went unanswered.
Another issue raised by the residents was the absence of the X-ray facility despite a building being constructed and an X-ray machine procured. The X-ray department at the Hospital was expected to be fully functional before the end of 2017, but is yet to be functional.