| By Desilon DanielsFollowing the termination of operations at the Berbice Regional Health Authority (BRHA), Minister of Public Health Dr. George Norton has revealed that the decision was a necessary one.In early June, Minister Norton suspended the BRHA’s operations with immediate effect. At the time, Norton had deemed the entity as illegal and had said that it had been operating for the past decade with no relevant legislation in place.However,Jerseys From China, the decision was not well-received by all; last week,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) hit out at the new government for its latest decision to terminate the BRHA. According to the PPP, the decision was taken without any real explanation as to what led to it.However,Wholesale China Jerseys, Dr. Norton indicated that the decision was taken because there was “no clear explanation” as to what the regional authority was all about.During an interview with Kaieteur News,Wholesale Jerseys, Minister Norton explained that the BRHA had been severely mismanaged.“Even the doctor who was in charge did not even know how he was working,” Norton said.He opined that while good intentions might have been present during the establishment of the regional authority, he said that it had needed a strategic rather than a random approach.“It was not producing the kinds of results that one would have expected,” Dr. Norton stressed. He added that the BHRA was actually the same regional health system which always existed, but “it was being applied under this fancy name and with lots of resources”, he said.He emphasised the importance of a regional authority such as the BHRA which administered over regions 5, 6 and others.“Yet, we were still getting bad healthcare in the Berbice region,” he said.He continued, “So,Cheap Jerseys From China, we took things under control and we’re holding the regional health authorities really which is responsible for the system accountable for what is taking place.”According to Norton, his Ministry is not only looking to put an administrator in the Berbice Regional Hospital but also a medical superintendent. He explained that this will allow for smoother running since there will be both a medical person and an administrative person. He said too that there ought to be a regional health officer responsible for the region.“The whole thing is that someone has to be accountable to somebody. When we go into the regions, when we go into the villages and so on and you see medical facilities that are totally rundown because persons weren’t taking control over them. There weren’t checks and balances and facilities were not being sustained or renovated or maintained,Cheap Jerseys Online,” Minister Norton said.Norton further said that not only must the new administrator hold persons accountable but those who are affected by a mismanaged system. In fact, he said, a meeting was recently held with a number of officials from all of the regions. Norton shared that in the meeting, these officials were informed about all of the regional health units that comprise their respective regions and the persons responsible for spending money allocated in the budget for the development of health in the region.“Everybody thinks that the Public Health Ministry is responsible for health in the whole country but that is not necessarily so; not even at the Georgetown Public Hospital, which is a corporation, or the one at Linden, which is run by a board.”“Why is it that we can’t give the Guyanese public a better quality of healthcare?” he questioned.He stressed that a number of areas in the health sector will come under review and their faults brought to the fore. Norton emphasised that the health sector needed to be better administered as its function was a key one for the nation. |
