Dear Editor,
I refer to an article published in the state paper, Guyana Chronicle, captioned, “He doesn’t have a normal childhood”. The article features an eleven-year-old “diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder”, and which goes on to also state that “last year May he was diagnosed with end stage renal disease, which caused him to lose both kidneys”.
These are serious health challenges even for an adult. I can only imagine how it intrudes on the green, carefree days of youth, as I have a son one year older. Our thoughts and prayers are with the young man and his entire family, especially his mother, who the journalist suggests is his primary caregiver.
However, the article side steps a critical component in the care being offered currently to such patients, young and old. The lad originates from New Amsterdam and the journalist would only state, “First, he received his dialysis with the Doobay Medical Centre in New Amsterdam, Berbice. Since that center shut its door a few months ago, he has since been receiving his treatment at the GPHC.”
What is more accurate is that the PPP administration took the decision to stop subsidising the cost of dialysis in New Amsterdam and as a result patients in need of this critical care in Region 5 & 6 have to travel to Georgetown for treatment, and obviously at greater additional costs.
Additionally, if the current administration is closing such critical centers we do not expect it to operationalize the one built at Linden, Region 10 and currently has all the requisite equipment to bring relief to the people of this Region, allied villages and communities.
The rolling back of the policies and programmes of the previous government in the name of paramount party politics sometimes has life and death consequences for the people of our country, as is instanced here. Likewise, boasting the largest budget ever means nothing if the entities and institutions; if the people in need of financial interventions the most are denied the same only because such initiatives were conceptualized and implemented by a callous, uncaring government’s predecessors.
Regards,
Sherod Avery Duncan, MP.
