GPHC lab needs to offer better service – Guyana Times
Dear Editor, I am a patient at one of the clinics at Georgetown Public Hospital, and am writing to highlight one of the biggest problems affecting my (and many other patients’) experience with the clinics . It’s about the Georgetown Public Hospital Lab. During my many years visiting the hospital as I became ill with age, I have encountered many problems with the laboratory. Most of the time, most of the tests are not available to do in the lab, and have to be done privately at a cost of several thousand dollars. My doctor recently ordered some blood tests to be done before my clinic date. However, when I came to the hospital on the date arranged by the lab to prepare the blood sample, I was told that the machine had broken down and they could not do the test. It was very inconvenient and distressing for me, as I was fasting for several hours for the blood test. This happens regularly with lab tests for many people like me, who come from remote regions and have to pay high prices. As a pensioner, I can’t afford to pay a trip from Berbice to Georgetown just to be told the machine is disassembling and can’t do the test. Can’t they do better? They collect our phone numbers to fill in their forms, can’t patients be contacted that there is a problem before they waste their time and money coming into hospital? And don’t expect an ounce of sympathy from laboratory staff regarding such situations. On several occasions, I have experienced so many hard and discourteous looks that one would think the laboratory staff were the inconvenient. I know that we in Guyana are far behind other countries in hospitality training, but I believe that we can even manage to treat others with a bit of civility. Our healthcare system is supposed to be a free health care system, but with every hospital visit, I seem to be paying more and more, whether I’m paying for medicines, blood tests or ultrasound. I urge whoever is in charge to investigate this issue. I will not give my name in case of persecution.
