Dear Editor,
Three weeks ago, I was silent when an interviewer visiting me said off the cuff, “Guyana does not need another hospital.” The subject meant nothing to me, and I wondered why the issue was mentioned. I know nothing about the utilisation of hospitals, but I know a few of them in Guyana. Still, this remark did not make sense to me until I heard on the news that Guyana was about to launch a hospital costing 30 billion Guyana dollars. Most people will be pleased with this, a very progressive development in the health sector of Guyana, and would assume from that that every person, the humblest and the highest, would have a right to health care at the best possible level available in our times.
I want to avoid all complications by asking a few simple questions. Everyone should know that I am a journalist. Whatever you want to call me, I have been writing in the newspapers of Guyana since the 1940s, challenging the high and mighty and people like me. One sportswriter, Hen Harper, looked at me and said, “Sydney, you can write for a living.” I was a country correspondent for the Guyana Daily Chronicle, and at the same time, teaching in a government school. I mention this to establish my basis for requesting that newspapers initiate thorough investigations into the report I heard regarding the proposed hospital. Specifically, it has been suggested that Guyana is set to undertake a 30-billion-dollar hospital project.
Here are a few simple questions:
How many alternative plans have been developed to show how to use the health system’s infrastructure and physical aspects to the best advantage of every citizen?
What does the National Resources Fund investment committee have to say about the 30-billion-dollar plan for the new hospital?
These are straightforward questions, as we must not hastily embark on such an expenditure without informed discussions within the health sector and with the public. This ensures due diligence before potentially making millionaires out of procurement and tender participants, which is one foreseeable outcome.
I want to emphasise that it is not by chance that the person who interviewed me, who was trained in medicine and public health, dropped the remark that “Guyana does not need another hospital.” Because of my public involvement, it was a message to me; it raised an alarm that something foul could be afoot. A project of that magnitude needs to be widely discussed by competent people. I ask all forums, all parties of both sides of the political system, to examine all documents and procurement, all feasibility studies connected to this project and have a reasonable discussion in the country’s interest.
Yours truly,
Eusi Kwayana
