…residents complain of being turned away
Residents in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) are being turned away from medical facilities which offer dental care because of a lack of dental needles to do extractions.
This newspaper was told on Friday that dozens of persons, including those who travelled from interior and riverine locations to obtain much-needed tooth extractions at health facilities along the Essequibo Coast, are now being forced to either fork out cash to visit private facilities or endure pain until the shortage is rectified.
However, some residents, who were unable to get their extractions done on Friday, told Guyana Times that although they were told by medical staff that the facilities do not have the necessary needles and that they would have to return, the patients were not advised as to how soon the medical supplies would arrive or given a date when they should return.
“They just said that last week they did not have and the dental place in Charity village gave them 20 needles but that those needles used up already. We were told that we had to come back another time but they could not tell us when to come back. They did not even say around when they expect more needles,” a pensioner told this publication on Friday.
Meanwhile, another resident of Anna Regina told this newspaper that his wife visited a health facility where she had been referred to have an extraction. This was after she was diagnosed with hypertension and other ailments and was advised by a doctor that she also needed to do an extraction.
“They tell her that the tooth problems compounding things and sent her to get it pulled out. She is sickly and had to be there sitting outside waiting all the time and when she reached the front they tell her that they cannot do any extraction because they ran out of needles. She had to come back home in pain after spending long hours there and when I asked her when she had to go back she said they never tell she when to check back,” the man complained.
As a result of this situation in Region Two, several residents are now concerned that their only option would be to seek private institutions. However, many are complaining that they cannot afford to pay the prices that privately-owned dental offices charge.
A source from that region’s Regional Office told this publication that certain medical supplies, such as the needles necessary for tooth extractions, are usually provided by the Dental School in Georgetown and not by regional authorities.
“That’s where the needles and so come from for our dental clinics or departments here in Essequibo. It is not something that the region itself sources to provide for those dental departments. However, we do try to assist how we can when something happens and we will try to see how we can have this issue taken care of also,” the source explained.
Efforts to contact the Regional Health Officer and other regional authorities on Friday about the matter proved futile.
In May, Region Two was plagued by a similar issue when checks found that all of the Government dental clinics in that region hadn’t any dental needles for an almost three-week timeframe.
Patients had been turned away from all Government dental clinics in the region due to the lack of dental needles. Those affected by teeth-related problems, including senior citizens and children, had been left to bear the severe pain without any other medical aid, not even a pain killer, one senior citizen had stated at that time.
