Specialised medical outreach held in Region 10

− specialists make home visits in riverine communities 

Residents living in the communities of Malali and Muritaro along the Demerara River in Region Ten had their medical concerns addressed during a specialised medical outreach held by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Region’s Health Office.

The Ministry’s Director-General, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, who is responsible for the development of regional healthcare, headed the exercise and worked along with visiting doctors and specialists, to address health concerns such as diabetes, dental hygiene and dentistry, ophthalmology and rehabilitation of person recovering from strokes.

“It’s more than the usual outreach; it’s the direction in which we are going, taking health care to the people. It has already started in Region One, Region Nine and Region Eight. So, bringing it into the interior and the riverine communities in Region 10 is actually the fourth step that we are taking this direction,” Dr. Mahadeo told DPI during the outreach.

He said the initiative is a directive from President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, for healthcare services to be made more accessible to all Guyanese.

Dr. Mahadeo attends to a bedridden patient at Malali.

In January, when President Ali headed an outreach to Region Ten, he had instructed, in keeping with the manifesto of the PPC/C, that there must be equitable and equal healthcare countrywide. President Ali had also singled out the care of expectant mothers as very important.

“It’s a case of bringing in experts, specialists to deal with patients, so for example, we have and will be visiting the home of those bedridden patients, taking the diabetic foot care to them, taking the rehab staff there so that they could advise relatives about what kinds of exercises the patient would need to do.

Dr. Daniel Josh Kanhai, a lecturer at Texila American University, sees a patient at the Malali health centre.

Next outreach is also going to include ultrasound, so those who have need for ultrasound, especially pregnant women, they will have their ultrasound done within the community and they don’t have to go to Linden,” the DG said.

The team visiting Region Ten on Saturday separated to cover the 47 and 58 miles Mabura area as well. “We are gathering data and making a list of the patients that need surgical intervention, so when we get all of this, we can go onto the next stage of providing that to patients also,” Dr. Mahadeo said.

Specialised medical outreach to Malali and Muritaro on the Demerara River, Region 10.

He added that each outreach will be followed up by the visit of a doctor, one month after the specialised exercise was held. Saturday’s team included Regional Health Officer for Region Ten, Dr. Gregory Harris, local medical staff and several specialists from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.