Edghill queries gov’t policy on medical aid for families in dire need

the surgery, other services that the cost will cover are 20 days hospitalisation in a private room, including food and nursing care, and his companion’s accommodation and food.

He appealed to the minister for her “compassionate consideration,” while mentioning that Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo recently visited him at his Kitty home and had indicated that he would discuss the case with her.

Azeez had gone to a construction site at Eccles on April 25, 2015, to pay workers when he was confronted by a lone gunman. He resisted and was shot in his abdomen by the armed man, who escaped after persons rushed out upon hearing the gunshot, the police had said in a statement on the shooting. The suspect in his shooting, Shelton George, was charged this year with the crime but subsequently died in prison.

Questions have been raised for a number of years, particularly under the previous PPP/C administration, about how the government decides which appeals for medical assistance should be granted and to what extent. Under the PPP/C, there had been an outcry after revelations about amounts that had been spent from state coffers for several government officials, including for cosmetic procedures. Ministers Pauline Sukhai and Jennifer Webster among others had been found to have spent millions of dollars on procedures that had not been deemed as life-saving.

This led to a statement on March 2nd, 2015 by the then opposition APNU+AFC which condemned the “vanity medical procedures.”

It said that at the same time that PPP officials are haemorrhaging monies from the public coffers on their teeth and other “narcissistic” procedures, ordinary Guyanese who are faced with large medical bills are being turned away from government offices when they seek public aid.

The alliance said then that the levels to which the disparity between the ordinary Guyanese and this elite group of PPP ministers and their friends have reached is obscene. APNU+AFC called on all Guyanese to “condemn this blatant abuse of the tax dollars”.

It said that APNU+AFC was committed to responsible and equitable distribution of funds for medical procedures for all Guyanese and also to a comprehensive overhaul of the healthcare system.