Residents of Essequibo Islands-West Demerara (Region Three), are expected to benefit from increased specialised medical outreaches, as part of several initiatives the regional health department has devised to provide improved healthcare services.
Acting Regional Health Officer (RHO), Dr. Erica Forte told DPI that the pandemic has caused some hesitancy among residents, especially the elderly, to access dire medical assistance. This, she said, has led to the health department’s decision to focus more on providing healthcare services at the community level.
“You will be able to be at home in your community and have a specialised health team coming there to visit persons that have been trying to get especially services like physiotherapy and so on, to come to your home and see you, because we know it’s very hard especially with Covid,” Dr Forte explained.
She added that residents’ health and wellness during this pandemic remain a priority, as such, systems are being put in place to manage drugs and medical supplies.
In 2021, the region was affected by a severe drug shortage with just over 40 percent of the drugs available. With the intervention by government, the situation has significantly improved to 85 percent.
The RHO said that “this means that we have more drugs, but not just more of the same drugs but a variety of drugs. This means better control over your baseline illnesses.”
Moving forward, healthcare officials will be trained to ensure there is proper management of the region’s drug and medical supplies, as well as predict shortfalls.
Some $7.6 billion has been approved to execute the region’s 2022 work programme.