Region Seven health posts to become community hospitals

GINA, GUYANA, Wednesday, March 8, 2017

The Region Seven, Regional Democratic Council (RDC) will be working towards transforming health posts within the region to community hospitals. This move comes after it has been recognised that there is a need for the upgrade of all health posts since emergency cases will not be housed on an in-patient basis as is the current structure.

Earlier in the year, Regional Health Services (RHS) Director, Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Kay Shako said that the RHS has recognised the need to build capacity in the regions through infrastructure and human resources. Money for the upgrade has been provided in the Ministry of Public Health’s 2017 budget.

Speaking with the Government Information Agency (GINA), Gordon Bradford, Regional Chairman of the Cuyuni Mazaruni region, explained that, since access to a secondary health care institution in the region is challenged, the expansion of these facilities is needed.

“We want to move away from saying health posts, we want to say … community hospitals because a health post doesn’t cater for admittance and so forth, and if you are au fait with any riverine community like in the Upper Mazaruni, people who live far off would travel distances to access health care. So we are saying now that we must build community hospitals which should at least cater for about five or six beds, that if the Doctor or the Medex or the Health Worker would see somebody and this person might need to be observed for a period, you have the facility,” Bradford explained.

Region Seven has more than 20 health posts with two health centres, and one district and one regional hospital, each. The health posts are strategically located at areas where they can serve residents from a number of villages and indigenous settlements in the region.

The chairman gave the example of a person travelling from Chinoweing, highlighting the various modes of transportation that must be used before the appropriate level of health care is accessed. Bradford highlighted that the region has begun the expansion of the Imbaimadai health post and is expected to undertake works in Waramadong this year.

“We have to prioritise these areas, Waramadong houses a secondary school and ever so often we have students (who might seek medical attention). So we hope to do that this year at Waramadong. The Kamarang district hospital is also slated for extension, because Bartica has now moved to a regional hospital so Kamarang is going to be a district hospital and we hope to improve in terms of the delivery of healthcare,” Bradford added.

By: Delicia Haynes