Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence wants the support of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) as she mulls beefing up security at medical facilities nationwide.
A release from the Public Health Ministry said that Minister Lawrence wanted perpetrators of attacks on health workers to face the full brunt of the law and be given “the maximum penalty” for turning health facilities into combat zones.
After a verbal altercation between a guard and a patient at a health centre in Sophia, Greater Georgetown, the latter, after threatening to shoot the security official, returned the following day armed with a machete hidden in a backpack, the Public Health Ministry stated.
According to the Ministry, the staff at that Sophia health facility are understandably “not feeling safe” in their work environment.
Minister Lawrence, the press release stated, is worried by the heightened danger faced by health workers who have endured sexual assaults, physical attacks and racially-charged verbal threats from irate, drunken and short-tempered persons seeking medical care.
While Lawrence admits being uncomfortable with armed security at health facilities becoming a norm, she maintained that the “safety of health workers and patients is my priority”.
Only recently, hospital staff at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) suffered assaults by patients and/or their families, drawing intense Government, regional and national concern and criticism.
Lawrence met with Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) authorities and security officials to help craft a blueprint to reverse what doctors at the institution said were years of aggressive behaviour from angry patients and/or their families who were either drunk or upset at the time spent before getting medical attention.
The situation arose when a drunken relative of a patient exploded in rage, damaging hospital property, assaulting emergency room doctors and making threats before escaping. That person remains on the lam.
Since that meeting, D Division (West Demerara) Commander Leslie James has ramped up security at the West Demerara Regional Hospital with support from the Region Three authorities.
