Diamond hospital plagued by staff, drug shortages

The Diamond Diagnostic Centre continues to be plagued with operational issues with the facility reportedly facing staff shortages and lacks the basic services and equipment necessary to offer adequate medical services to members of the public.
Nurses attached to the East Demerara Regional Hospital reached out to Guyana Times International over the weekend and complained that all of the operations of the hospital are being done by only a few nurses, who are left to multitask and are forced to work long hours beyond their shifts in order to get the work completed.
One of the nurses, who wished to remain anonymous due to fear of victimisation, told this publication that a majority of the staff of the hospital have been migrating to England through agencies soliciting medical personnel for overseas jobs while others have sought transfers to escape the “stressful” environment at the Diamond hospital.
“A lot of the nurses gone away to work in England and others are seeking time off to study at University, and others are taking transfers because they can’t continue to work at Diamond. This place is like a slave camp with no proper facilities to carry out the job. It’s just a few of us doing all the work. It’s like one person doing four persons’ job. We don’t even have basic medication to give to patients. It’s a very ridiculous situation here,” the nurse stressed.
Further, the nurses added that machines and other vital equipment have been out of order for an extended period of time despite several reports to the administration about seeking repairs.
“The X-ray and EKG machines are not working for a long time now. We keep reporting over and over, but nobody cares about getting it fixed. There are no proper facilities here and when patients come, we have to send them away or refer them to GPHC. We have nothing here really. It’s an exhausting situation here and the condition of this hospital and is getting from bad to worse,” another nurse decried.
Additionally, the nurses related that there is a major shortage of drugs and other medication at the institution and this greatly limits their ability to treat patients in need of medical attention.
The nurses contended that the Diamond hospital has a negative stigma attached. The blame for this, they insisted, should be placed at the feet of the administration that is responsible for ensuring the hospital is properly equipped with nurses, doctors, and supplies to perform its services effectively.
“People always have something negative to say about this [Diamond] hospital but it’s not our fault. We can only do so much. When patients come, sometimes we don’t have anything to treat them with… and other times, a doctor isn’t even on duty and they have to wait and people get agitated by these things. If we are taken care of and are properly supplied with the necessary tools, we can carry out our job efficiently”, one nurse posited.
This is not the first time staff are complaining about the condition of the East Bank medical facility. In fact, back in 2017, medical workers had staged a strike in order to have their concerns and issues addressed. This led to the Public Health Ministry and regional officials hosting a meeting with staff to iron out the matter.
That meeting was headed by then Junior Health Minister Dr Karen Cummings, who had noted that the main concern of the Ministry is to ensure that patients and staff are treated with care and respect at all health facilities throughout Guyana and that necessary systems should be in place to ensure that health services are provided in an unhindered manner.
The issues that affected the hospital at that time were the lack of security presence, non-functional sewerage systems and faulty electricity supply due to poor installation.
Now, less than two years later, the hospital is once again facing issues hampering the effective delivery of healthcare services.
This comes on the heels of Public Health Minister, Volda Lawrence, recently boasting of her Government’s commitment to improving access to primary healthcare to all of Guyana. The Minister’s statement comes at a time when the healthcare system is experiencing the longest and most widespread shortage of drugs in recent history.
Furthermore, the credibility of the public hospitals is under much fire owing to the alarming number of reported deaths of children and newborns.
Nonetheless, the Minister acknowledged that these problems exist and undertook to continue working to address them.