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– Minister Ramsammy While they are admittedly not foolproof,Adam Loewen Canada Jersey, systems have been put in place at public hospitals to ensure that public health professionals do not deliberately withhold available services to patients and opt to refer them to private institutions.This disclosure was made by Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, yesterday as he voiced his concern about such an allegation that was brought to his attention by this newspaper.The allegation entailed a tale of a woman who was diagnosed as having a gallstone the size of an awarra at the Diamond Diagnostic Centre and was referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for surgery.Several weeks elapsed before the operation was undertaken as a doctor had informed the family that the woman’s surgery was not that urgent. However, during the course of the wait the woman’s relative were advised to have the operation done at a private city hospital where the said doctor was also employed. The cost of the operation at the private facility was given as $300,000,NFL Jerseys Supply, an amount the family could have ill-afforded.According to Minister Ramsammy he has attempted an investigation into the allegation but has not succeeded in garnering the necessary information to that specific case as the name of the patient and the doctor in question was not revealed to him.However the Minister speculated that the nature of the case could have either been a case where the health professional deliberately withheld available service or out of concern offered an alternative option.“We have to be careful how we interpret what people tell us because you see we have a long list of people and it may not be that they are not ready for surgery but maybe what they are told is that in our system the urgency of their case is not as great to put them ahead of others.”The Minister said that at the moment the GPHC has seven fully functional operating theatres, two of which must always be available. One he said is dedicated to eye surgeries and another is always kept open for emergencies.“We have to do this otherwise if there is a big accident we are in trouble. So we have to always keep one theatre staffed and ready to go for emergencies. The other six theatres have to be shared by our doctors.”And it is due to this development the Minister disclosed that doctors are not able to perform surgeries on a daily basis but rather they have to be slotted in strategically during the week. “Our system is nothing like the private hospitals. What the private hospitals do for an entire year we do in one week. So we cannot do all the surgeries that come to us immediately,” Minister Ramsammy asserted.This state of affairs,NFL Jerseys Outlet, the Minister confessed, leaves room for some corrupt practices. “Some staffers – it may be doctors, nurses or others – might take a little payment to put people ahead.“But even if we discount those,World Baseball Classic Jerseys 2017, there is still a long line of people…and it might be that the patient is told that your case requires surgery but it will be at this time or the other. So sometimes that is said to them in a helpful way or sometimes it is also deliberate.”However,jerseys nfl wholesale, the Minister cautioned that sometimes patients themselves interpret advice offered in their own way and sometimes they initiate the discussion and in some cases make public a different version of their dilemma.Minister Ramsammy said that it is on a daily basis that such stories are brought to his attention, even as he admitted that there are instances when there is enough reason for somebody within the public health sector to be held accountable.“I have three cases right now from New Amsterdam where it is a little different. It is not like they refer the patient to their own offices; they refer the patient to a private hospital in the city (name withheld) and it is clear to me,wholesale jerseys, it might be hard for me to prove it. But the kind of cases they refer for, we have those specialists at the GPHC. So the referral should have been to the GPHC and not to the private hospital.”Engaging in such activities, the Minister noted, cannot be done out of a lack of knowledge as he has raised concerns about this situation on a number of occasions, even as he underscored that the GPHC has some of the more experienced specialists available in the country. “It is clear to me that there is some kind of alliance. If they funnel patients to certain facilities they get a little commission or something.We have people who can do cholesterol test at GPHC for instance but a doctor could tell them don’t worry with them they take long; go at this lab and pay for it and get the results fast. This is because they have arrangements…private arrangements,” the Minister insisted.And though systems are in place the Minister cautioned that they will not prevent all such cases occurring but rather have served to reduce these cases. He revealed that in the past cases were far more prevalent. And since the systems are not foolproof, the Minister said that it is crucial for people to work closely with the public health sector to further reduce these incidences. As such the Minister noted that it is essential for names to be called in order for each suspected case to be properly investigated. In the interim though he noted that measures are being put in place,cheap nfl jerseys online, mainly at the GPHC, for patients’ referral to the private sector be channelled through the office of the Chief Executive Officer so that should an incident arise it can be investigated to determine the legitimacy of allegations. |
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