| – Doctors’ offices could come under scrutiny“Waste in general is a major public health issue in this country and it is time we all confess that we do not have a clean country,” Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, declared yesterday. He was at the time addressing a biomedical waste treatment workshop at the Regency Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown.According to the Minister, “We have a messy country because we ourselves have not recognised that we are creating an unhealthy environment through our reckless management of our waste.”And against this background, Minister Ramsammy said that the Health Facilities Licensing Act is an instrument that has been introduced to ensure compliance in both the public and private sector as it relates to the management of biomedical waste. The Act presently applies to all Hospitals,Cheap NFL Jerseys 2018, Dialysis Centres,nfl jerseys china, Imaging Centres, Cancer Institutes,China Cheap Jerseys, and Laboratories. However, it does not yet apply to private doctors’ offices, the Minister revealed yesterday.“If you take 200 doctors practicing privately on a daily basis that is an enormous amount of waste that is generated and this presently does not fall under the Act…Or so people believe.”Let me make it quite clear that the Act gives the Minister the power to bring any institution, for the purpose of regulating public health, under the jurisdiction of that Act.”In addition,Cheap NFL Jerseys Online, Minister Ramsammy revealed that there is yet another, three-page Act which will be enforced. This Act according to the Minister mandates the Ministry of Health and the Minister to protect the health of the people of Guyana.According to him, the waste generated in a private doctor’s office constitutes a hazard to the public and therefore is a real danger to the health and welfare of the population.“Nobody has paid attention to this (Ministry of Health Act) I want them to start paying attention. The Ministry of Health through this instrument has absolute jurisdiction to say to the private practitioners what they must do with their waste.”As a result, the Minister said that a programme has commenced in the city to effectively address the disposal of waste. Sensitisation is currently ongoing and the Minister noted that the 2011 inspection for licenses will demand that private sector facilities make provision for their waste.“We have no objection to them putting up their own facilities and taking care of their waste. If they (private facilities) want to spend a million dollars to do it themselves then by all means… But if they don’t want to invest then they had better talk to Mr Michael Khan and Parmanand Samaroo (Chief Executive Officer and Director of Facilities Management, respectively, at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation), because we will not allow them to get rid of the waste the way they are doing now and still grant them a licence.”In essence,Wholesale Jerseys Authentic, the Minister said that licencing will be contingent on facilities complying with the regulations entailed in the Act, thus every effort is currently being made by the Ministry of Health to make waste disposal facilities that are readily available to private facilities.“We are making it easy for everyone. If they can’t invest in their own systems we are investing for them.” However, he warned that the service cannot be made available free of cost,Jerseys NFL Cheap, thus a charge must be incurred by private facilities.Meanwhile, the Minister is urging that citizens take up the responsibility to help keep the country clean. He expressed his expectation that the rules and regulations that are put into the health sector to manage biomedical waste – that call for the building of responsibility by health care providers and managers of the health care system – would extend to the general public. He noted that since all waste constitutes a hazard to the welfare and health of the people of this country, every person must bear the responsibility to take care of their waste. “We can’t dump waste in drains and on street corners. People feel that they have a right to just throw away their waste. The waste we generate still belongs to us, we need to take care of it; we need to ensure that we follow etiquette and rules.” |
