For this the recognition, unchallenged PPP propaganda poses such clear and present dangers, that unhesitating must be our obligation, in scrutinising Dr. Mahendra Carpen’s recent pronouncement. However, even as we scrupulously deconstruct his naked propaganda, which asserts PPP healthcare stands par excellence globally, imperative must be the undertaking, that neither message nor messenger escapes our critical analysis.
In fact, having the messenger purporting with resounding arrogance, that he epitomises interventional cardiology crème de la crème, mandates a credibility and integrity examination, under our inculpatory microscope. However, in endeavouring this examination, unavoidably it meant, Dr Carpen’s irrefutable record facing scrutiny, informed of one-year interventional cardiology fellowships in Toronto Canada and Massachusetts USA.
But informed by international standards, such stand-alone fellowships, not limited to interventional cardiology, aren’t recognised as specialist training. For this represents the underpinning rationale, specialist training is of much longer duration, even as the contents are more rigorous and wider in scope. Therefore, guided by the aforementioned, postgraduate bodies, including Massachusetts and Toronto, recognising the limitations of stand-alone fellowships, as undertaken by Dr. Carpen, are unambiguous in their advisory, fellowships wouldn’t lead to specialist certification. However, despite these advisories, Dr Carpen undeterred, continues to promote the false narrative of being an interventional cardiologist, and in so doing, placing vulnerable unsuspecting patients at great risk.
Moreover, considering Dr Carpen shamelessly masquerades as an interventional cardiologist, compelled we are to further scrutinise his credibility and integrity. To this end, we once again place on record the countless financial exploitation allegations, totalling innumerable thousands of US dollars, facing Dr Carpen. In fact, such allegations were wholly validated by former president Donald Ramotar, who in a letter to the media, narrated several troubling concerns about patients being financially exploited at the CHI, Dr Carpen heads.
Therefore, underpinned by the aforementioned evidence, the conclusion is Dr Carpen in dishonestly misrepresenting his qualifications, even as he faces serious allegations of financially exploiting vulnerable patients, has neither the integrity nor credibility, critical for an honest assessment of any healthcare system. Which means, facing such disreputable characterisation, Dr. Carpen’s hyperbolic propagandising of PPP healthcare is without credibility, and must be totally rejected.
However, it’s in the public interest, to factually communicate the dire state of PPP healthcare, informed by independent reports from PAHO, WHO and the IDB. Thus, firstly this discomforting reality, it’s under PPP dysfunctional healthcare, that we register the lowest life expectancy, in Latin America and the Caribbean.
And compounding this alarming life expectancy, is the shocking realisation that many of our babies aren’t living beyond their first birthdays, evidenced in us having the highest neonatal and infant mortalities. Moreover, with the media painfully keeping us informed, recollections are ours, of the many women who are tragically dying in childbirth, supporting PPP status as having the highest maternal mortality. Then, with pervasive incompetence, distressing it must be with our loved ones unforeseen deaths, reflected in PPP astronomical unexpected deaths and never events.
Having said that, the aforementioned represents only the tip of the iceberg, since in 2023, IDB published a damning report which among other things detailed, 94% of our hospitals are shockingly without treated water, basic medicines or electricity. Further, the very report elaborates, 24 hospitals, including GPHC, are in states of disrepair, even as many are without basic doppler machines, sterilisers, ultrasound machines, uterine evacuation equipment, sets for IUCD contraceptives insertion and cold storage for medicines.
In fact, so deplorable is this PPP healthcare, that many hospitals are without facilities for safe disposal of hazardous medical waste, which lends to public burnings, and risk to neighbouring communities. Then, the report informs, capacity in GPHC A&E at any given time, is of such that, only half the presenting patients could be accommodated, which explains the well publicised crowding at the main entrance.
So, even as we conclude, it must be emphasised to remove any lingering doubt, that Dr. Carpen’s one-year fellowships, in both Massachusetts and Toronto, were at junior doctor levels, with consequently very limited exposure to their healthcare systems. In fact, this limited exposure he made evident in shockingly asserting PPP healthcare as first-class, compared to those in America and Canada.
However, registering more than 11yrs experience as a UK specialist, along with 3yrs at GPHC, unquestionably qualifies this columnist to comparatively evaluate healthcare systems. And this comparative evaluation, informed by the aforementioned international institutions’ reports, positions PPP healthcare as the crappiest in Latin America and the Caribbean, standing as no comparator to those of America or Canada.
