Gov’t outreach held at Annandale over NIS queries
A scene from the gathering yesterday at Annandale in relation to queries about the National Insurance Scheme.
Residents of Annandale and surrounding East Coast Demerara communities yesterday had matters pertaining to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) dealt with.
According to the Department of Public Information (DPI), Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall SC spearheaded the exercise, in keeping with a directive from President Irfaan Ali.
DPI said that scores of residents had raised their concerns with President Ali during a recent visit to the East Coast at which time he issued the instruction for the area’s parliamentary representative to return.
“We have seen hundreds of persons so the outreach, I believe, has been very successful and we hope to do it on a continuous basis. Hopefully, we can replicate this countrywide because anywhere you go in this country, you meet persons with complaints of NIS or of an NIS nature. So, it is a countrywide national problem and we are beginning to address it,” Nandlall told DPI.
NIS General Manager, Holly Greaves said most of the issues residents raised related to missing NIS contributions, while others were seeking clarification on their pension rate and benefits offered by the Scheme.
“We have taken their details and NIS has a system in place to address these outstanding contributions. Actually, we are doing some data cleansing with some of our large employers like GuySuCo. We have started from Corriverton Estate coming down and definitely some of the queries that they have raised here will be addressed”, she told DPI.
The General Manager said that the data cleansing will help to clarify many of the matters since most of the information received by the NIS from employers was incorrect.
“What we are doing is speaking with the human resource persons from agencies to make sure that we have the correct name and NIS number for persons,” she said.
Meanwhile, residents commended the initiative. Pitamber Pandey said he turned 60 two years ago and had filed his claim at the NIS, but was told he could not benefit at the time.
“I was supposed to submit it two years ago, but now I come and clarify it and they said sure that I will get my payment… This is very good for people because people would come and get their issue clarified quickly… It is far better we can come here and sit and get it and you get to ask more questions and clarify all the issues,” he told DPI.
Radica Dedeokhran said she wanted to find out about the two per cent incentive to which she was entitled. The woman said she applied for the benefit two years ago and is yet to receive it. However, the engagement at the outreach was fruitful.
“They took good care of me. They told me to full a form and that they will check it out and get back to me… This is good because when you go there, they have you running about. So, when you come here, they will take care of you. You have no problem, you come and they look into your problem,” Dedeokhran said.
Director-General of the Ministry of Health, Dr Vishwa Mahadeo has assured that the authorities are making every effort to ensure the medical needs of the public are served.
In a Department of Public Information (DPI) release yesterday, Dr Mahadeo stated that the government has ordered and shipped vital medications to alleviate shortages in the health system. This, he said, was in addition to purchasing all medicines available locally to address the “massive” drug shortage the administration encountered upon taking office last year.
In an interview with DPI on Friday, Dr Mahadeo noted that even as the situation improves, there are several options available within the sector to ensure the public is served.
“What are we doing right now to deal with these issues? One, the regional tender boards, they have monies in their budget to purchase drugs and medical supplies as a backup emergency supplies for the shortages that they may have. It will go through the tender board process, and they are going to receive their supplies.
So, although we had initially an emergency purchase for medicines, all the stocks that we had here in Guyana, we bought it out and the companies now have to bring it back again. We are also still awaiting delivery on some of those items,” Dr Mahadeo explained.
However, he stressed that the pharmaceutical companies are not to be blamed for the delays as despite the lead time of six months, companies have been very accommodating and have fast-tracked deliveries.
“There are shortages of medicines across the world. However, like I said, we are working on this. We expect another shipment of medicines from the supplier to be here on Monday. The following Monday, we expect another shipment and they should be large shipments. As soon as we get supplies, however small or large, that comes to the Materials Management Unit, we immediately ship it out, send it to the regions.”
The Director-General also addressed the issue of equipment and noted that government has made provisions in Budget 2021 to replace broken equipment at hospitals with more advanced digital machines.
“The sad thing in the healthcare system is that when you don’t take care of the medical equipment, hundreds of thousands of people suffer, and that has been happening. Let’s take the case of Region Five, there is a very old, antiquated X-ray machine, and machines can have a lifespan, so you have to budget for it, you have to replace it.”
According to the release, some $322 million from the health sector’s $53.5 billion budget allocation will be used to purchase equipment for the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Another $2.8 billion has been allocated for the modernisation and expansion of the physical health infrastructure and $35 million to strengthen emergency medical services.
The health sector received some $51.7 billion in the 2020 Emergency Budget, of which $14.3 million was used to procure drugs and medical supplies that were in short supply, the release added.