Gov’t wants to fix long waiting times, poor treatment at hospitals & other health centres

The Ministry of Health is implementing new systems to fix some long-standing issues at hospitals in a bid to improve patient services, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony said recently.

Dr. Anthony acknowledged that many people who seek health services are often faced with lengthy waiting times and poor treatment from some healthcare workers.

“If people are coming late and that causes the patients to wait unnecessarily, then we need to fix that because we are in the business of serving people. We are not in the business of keeping people here a long time.

“People come to us because they are sick and when they come, they want people to have empathy and they want people to look after them,” Dr. Anthony emphasised during a recent visit to Region Six (East Berbice- Corentyne).

As the government seeks to build more hospitals and health facilities across the country, the Health Minister said greater emphasis will be placed on guaranteeing that the delivery of services is improved.

“We will be putting up posters at each health centre with a telephone number.

“So, if you come to any one of these facilities and you are not getting good service, you can call that number and they’ll record your complaints and talk to the different people in the region to make sure that they go and see what is happening and they fix it,” Dr. Anthony said.

Government officials have been hinting at new systems to address complaints emanating from public services. Earlier this year, the Georgetown Public Hospital, Guyana’s main referral hospital, established a complaints office to manage concerns from aggrieved patients.