As a colony for hundreds of years – first of the Dutch then of the Brits – medical care wasn’t exactly high on their agenda for their slaves. You’d think as a business proposition they’d want those slaves they paid good money for to be kept in fit condition as long as they could; to slave away and make them rich. But the slaves were treated like cattle, and they died like flies.
It wasn’t till the indentured replaced the liberated slaves that hospitals started to spring up on the plantations, to join the two hospitals in New Amsterdam and Georgetown that catered to the elite. Those hospitals served to ensure that workers were back to the fields ASAP!! The colonial state, to its credit, did expand the hospital system so that, at Independence, we had cottage hospitals in most of the far-flung regions. Down in Lethem, even the Brazilians across from Boa Vista came over for medical care.
Sadly, when Burnham took over, that medical system collapsed, like everything else. Being sent to the “premier” hospital, Georgetown, was universally seen as being sentenced to death! It was rather ironic that Burnham passed away at that institution while on an operating table for a supposedly routine throat procedure. That it was Cuban doctors attending to him epitomised the medical decline, since all the famed Guyanese doctors who’d qualified in British medical schools had departed!
But, thank God, long gone are the days when rats nibbled away at the toes of newborns at the “Big Hospital” – now GHPC. There’s still a far way to go, however – since we’re starting from such a low base. But since the PPP’s stint first turn at the helm, following free and fair elections in 1992, we’ve come a long way. Of great help was the medical school at UG, but that wasn’t enough to staff the new hospitals built in the regions, as well as the expanded GHPC. And now, in its present iteration, it’s clear that the PPP Government is determined to bring us on par with the Developed World, as far as medical care is concerned.
Ground was broken in a multi-billion, state-of-the-art paediatric and maternal hospital at Ogle, and now the same’s been done for the first of six regional hospitals at Enmore. The others will be at Anna Regina, Reg 2; De Kinderen, Reg 3; Diamond, Reg 4; Bath, Reg 5; and Number 75 Village, Reg 6.
But there’s gonna be a problem – staffing!! Cuba’s been very helpful, both in supplying their doctors and in training ours. VP Jagdeo has disclosed that India will also be chipping in. From our experience with the Cubans, we must insist on English proficiency – or we’ll have a catastrophe on our hands!!
…with the PNC??
Now, your Eyewitness must be missing something. When the PNC were squatting in office, they had zero tolerance for squatting!! In fact, one of the founding members of the party, Eusi Kwayana – who introduced the entire notion of “cooperative socialism” to Burnham – broke with him on squatting on land. In the 70s on the East Coast of Demerara – home of the emblematic African ancestral villages – folks squatting on unused sugar lands were ejected by the PNC.
Kwayana pointed out the further irony, that a socialist Government dedicated to “housing the small man” was now expelling them from planters’ land!! He’d go on to launch the WPA – which became Burnham’s staunchest enemy. But we now have another irony exposed. While expelling those ordinary Guyanese from empty land, the PNC actually started squatting on Government property in Lethem! They got away with it – but like old people say – time is longer than twine! They’ve finally been ejected.
But who’s surprised they’re paying “wrong and strong”??
…pussycat??
In the 60s free love era, the movie “What’s up pussycat” spoofed the tale of a young man trying to stay faithful to his fiancée – but is pursued by a slew of attractive women. That’s now the modern male’s dream??
