RHO says his hands are tied, blames drug shortage on politics

Region Three’s (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) Regional Health Officer (RHO) is now claiming that the “political nature” of the community of De Kendren, West Coast Demerara (WCD,) is the contributing factor that has led to the Public Health Ministry not being able to implement the “Public Health agenda” at the health centre there.

Guyana Times had recently reported the woes that are plaguing the De Kendren Health Centre which had caused the doctor and nurses at the facility to down tools, refusing to work. One of those woes was a major drug shortage.
The health centre’s Pharmacist, Jennifer Thompson, decried the medication shortage which she said has been ongoing for a lengthy period.
Thompson relayed that on many occasions, and as a result of the shortage, she was forced to use her own monies to purchase drugs for patients at the centre.
“We do not get the amount of drugs and our clinic people are using the drugs. I am working at another place and sometimes I have to bring drugs from that end to give my patients. Sometimes I have to take my own money, especially to buy the types of medication needed the most here. When you go to uplift drugs, they have your book long and when you do get the drugs, it is just a few things,” Thompson complained.
However, the Region’s Health Officer, Dr Ravendra Dudhnath denied that there is a shortage at the facility and in the same breath reported that two former RHOs had informed that there were grave difficulties in implementing the “public health agenda in the predominantly agricultural community based on the nature of politics there”.
According to the doctor, the reports given by the pharmacist and a pensioner who reported that since October last, he was unable to receive insulin from the facility, are false.
Dr Dudhnath reiterated that there “is no shortage of drugs at the facility”.
Additionally, the RHO blamed the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) and a dismantled trestle for the lack of water at the centre.
Nurse Nikita Johnson had reported to this publication that in order for care to be provided to patients, nurses would be forced to fetch water from aback the facility’s yard which has not been cleaned for months and as such is “high with grass!”
The angered nurse decried the punishment that has to be endured at her place of work explaining “out of the kindness of my heart I go at the back to climb up on a trestle to turn on a pipe to get some water. When that tank is empty, we have no water. The clinic attendant she usually does it because she has to wipe and clean and it is very unfair to her to be putting on a long boots to go where snakes and all different things that can attack her. And I said to myself that I am not doing it anymore! When it comes to the washroom, you gotta take a bucket and throw in water over the urine and faeces and what not and that is unsanitary!”
The condition of the health centre’s yard, Dudhnath explained, is as a result of tenders being out for maintenance of the yard and as a consequence he cannot employ anyone to clear it of the overgrown weeds. The RHO said his hands are “tied”.
As such, the medical personnel at the health centre are calling for the officials of the Health Ministry to send a team to visit to the facility.