The level of healthcare delivery in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) is expected to be majorly bumped up when four new specialists join the team of existing doctors. They are expected to join the team early next week.
Director of Regional Health Services (RHS), Dr Kay Shako
This is a part of the Public Health Ministry’s plan to ensure that hinterland regional hospitals are equipped with doctors offering specialized services. The four main specialty areas where doctors will be employed are General Surgery, Obstetrics/Gynaecology, Internal Medicine and Paediatrics.
Director of Regional Health Services (RHS), Dr Kay Shako, said the idea is to bridge the inequitable gaps of healthcare between the hinterland and coastal regions, and as a result reduce the number of medical outreaches made to the hinterland and number of medevacs to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
“I’m proud to say that, in the coming week, Region Nine will have its complete quota of specialists to manage the hospital there. So Region Seven would have had all its specialists already, and now we have Region Nine to be completed. The two specialists that will be going there will be a specialist in Internal Medicine and a Paediatrician,” Dr Shako said.
She made reference to the fact that since these specialists have been placed in the hinterland, the need for medical evacuations and surgical outreaches has been reduced. She added that a survey showed a reduction of medivacs has been recorded in Region Seven.
Despite the challenge to recruit doctors with the necessary qualifications, Region One is slated for the next assignment of specialists. The Mabaruma Regional Hospital had been earmarked for placement of these specialists towards the end of the first quarter of 2017.
“We are about to go to Region One. Even as I speak, we already have a Gynaecologist for Region One and a Paediatrician; and they will be going there within another month,” the RHS Director said.
Meanwhile, residents from Region Nine said that the addition of the four specialists would increase the level of service delivered in the region, noting that it would reduce economic burdens to patients who have to travel to Georgetown and other regions to access specialized services.
A source from the Lethem Hospital told the Guyana Times that addition of the new doctors would enhance the services delivered by the institution.
“We really need these services, especially in the Obstetrics/Gynaecology department, because when we (have) complicated (pregnancy) cases, there won’t be the need for medivacs, and we will be equipped to deal with it,” the source related.
