450 employees expressed themselves freely about their aspirations and fears. Among them Pascal Lecante. He is a nurse at the CHC. He fears the announcement effect but still has hopes for this future CHU. “It’s an approach full of good intentions, sincerity, frankness. The decision-makers have understood that the Guyanese university hospital center will only be able to function with the support and trust of the staff but also of the Guyanese population. My question concerned the fact that we know the contents of these envelopes and what these envelopes will be used for concretely. This will be important because we must keep in mind that the demands to obtain this CHU come from a social demonstration which shaken in Guyana, my fears relate to the consistency of the development of the project, the consistency in the investment of all the protagonists. I would like this announcement not to be an epiphenomenon, that we feel that we are developing and gaining strength”
Céline Félicité has been a pediatric nurse for almost 9 years at the CHC. For her, these moments of listening and discussion were essential. “I have been working for around 9 years and this is the first time that there has been a meeting of this kind. It’s a very powerful time to finally be able to meet between management and to be able to exchange, communicate, listen, listen to each other in order to be able to talk about this great project. »
While some see this project as a unique opportunity, others express their concerns about the scale of the changes to come, such as Carole Gayou, member of the administrative staff of the Kourou Hospital Center. “It’s going to be a great gas plant when we’re at the University Hospital because we’re going to have to work on several software programs, on several legal entities and so, until now, we’re not ready. »
Despite these doubts, the CHU also arouses great hopes, notably from Jean-Yves Catin, chief doctor of the Saint-Georges de l’Oyapock local hospital. For him, it may be an opportunity to retain the loyalty of the medical teams trained at the local level. “The new university courses are the possibility of having caregivers who are trained here in Guyana. And that, for us, is important because we often have difficulty training our teams and then we have difficulty retaining them. We hope that if we have caregivers trained in Guyana, they will stay with us a little longer. »
Another crucial issue raised by staff concerns the equitable distribution of means and decisions so that resources are not centralized only in Cayenne. Christophe Bouriat, the director of the Cayenne Hospital Center reassures on this point. “It’s exactly the opposite of what we want, it’s a multi-site university hospital, the three hospital sites will be university sites. The response to the health needs of the population will not be done only on one site, only on Cayenne, CHOG or Kourou. It must be done within the framework of territorialized sectors in the three establishments and extending to the CDPS and local hospitals.
Finally, to close the debate, Pascale Lecante, nurse at the CHC, recalls the distant origins of this project which is also the fruit of the demands made by the 2017 social movement. “Where did the idea of the CHU come from above all? It wasn’t just a few directors or a few doctors who suddenly had this idea. It comes from the population. It was the social movement in 2017. And when the population said CHU, they had stars in their eyes. What they wanted was excellence. Now it’s our responsibility to give them that. Rather than fearing this project, we must be united and work together. »
What everyone agrees is the success of the University Hospital is the ability to bring together everyone’s skills and meet the expectations of Guyanese patients. If January 1, 2025, will usher in a new era for public health in Guyana, it is above all a first administrative step.
By Radio Country.
