Medical outreaches for Baramita in 2018

DPI, GUYANA, Friday, February 16, 2018

Residents in Baramita, Region One will soon benefit from health services within their community through medical outreaches. To access medical services, the residents are often required to travel to health centres outside of their community.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) is currently working to extend its current outreach programmes in Region One to the Baramita district. This will see the residents there benefitting from surgical, ultrasound and dental services among others.

Regional Health Officer (RHO), for Region One Dr. Cerdel Mc Watt explained to the Department of Public Information (DPI) that a work plan is being crafted which incorporates quarterly outreaches to Baramita.

“We know that Baramita had a lot of challenges in 2017 and we hope to correct them. Mr. Michael Gouveia, the Hinterland Coordinator, has discussed a work plan for Baramita which will see various programmes coming on stream.  Among them, we will have improved Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA), Maternal and Child health (general immunisation programme) and we’ll also look to improve mental health since Baramita had a lot of suicides in the past years,” Dr. Mc Watt explained.

A similar outreach was held in Mabaruma in 2017, where skilled personnel, consultants, and assistants were gathered from all areas, primarily Georgetown, to provide free surgical interventions in Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Orthopedics and General Surgery.

Additionally, there are plans for midwives and Restorative Nurse Assistants (RNAs) to be stationed in the district. Mc Watt noted that in addition to boosting the staff complement of physicians, medics and Community Health Workers (CHWs), the midwives and RNAs will significantly augment the services offered to the residents.

According to Dr. Mc Watt, these outreach services will be administered at the Baramita health centre, which is slated to have an Inpatient and Outpatient Unit, while the family health programme will be altered to incorporate the Adolescent Club and Mental Health. The facility will also have the requisite pharmacy area, a storage facility for and a laboratory the RHO stated.

With a growing population in the Baramita and other hinterland communities, the government continues to make every effort to ensure that health services in both the coastland and hinterland are improved in quality, efficiency, and effectiveness. In 2018, $33.3B was allocated to the health sector.

 

By: Ranetta La Fleur

 

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