A patient of the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) is now dead after he reportedly jumped from the facility’s male ward.
Sixty-two-year-old Mortimer Sagan of Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara, took his life by jumping through a window of the said ward.
According to information received by Guyana Times, the incident occurred around 19:00h on Sunday at the facility.
Reports are that the man, who was admitted as a tuberculosis patient, after jumping ended up on a septic tank and reportedly died on the spot.
It is unclear what motivated Sagan’s actions. The Police are currently investigating the matter.
Meanwhile, the West Dem Hospital only recently made headlines when doctors attached to the hospital refused to work and took strike action as a result of failure on the part of the Public Health Ministry to address their numerous concerns.
The hospital was left in a state of panic when all doctors of the medical facility downed their equipment and refused to work.
The doctors, via a letter sent to their medical superintendent which was copied and sent to all levels, outlined a number of concerns that affects them and vowed to strike if no response was given.
The letter which was seen by this publication stated, “…this letter serves to inform you that the staff of the Accident and Emergency Unit of the West Demerara Regional Hospital are disappointed, frustrated, disgusted and fed-up of the way in which our daily verbal grievances are being handled. To date we have not seen any measures implemented within our department to alleviate our struggles or worries”.
The letter continues, “the staffers of the Emergency Unit no longer feel safe in their working environment. They no longer feel motivated to provide the best patient care since supportive structure and drugs are on regular shortage or absent. They no longer feel the need to go above and beyond because they feel that the administrative body does not care and have swept all of their relevant and legitimate concerns aside”.
The doctors were calling for better security at the facility following a number of incidents where doctors were either physically attacked or verbally abused by patients and others.
In fact, a recent incident saw two doctors being attacked by a patient and his relatives and were even spat upon. The doctors have since been calling for the Public Health Ministry to tighten security services at the facility.
