‘BLOOD’ PATIENTS GO UNTREATED

Beanca Bain, whose daughter has sickle cell anaemia said, “There are so many agendas in our country that our plea is being swept under the carpet. It is long overdue, our young promising people with inherited diseases are dropping like flies and no one is there to stand up and talk for them.”

She said blood disorders like Sickle Cell Thalassemia (an abnormality in one or more globin genes), and haemophilia (a hereditary disease in which the blood does not clot) affected all ethnic groups. She said blood disorders pass from one generation to another.

Bain said the society has lost eight patients for this year from among its small membership. Referring to one case she said a 20-year-old man was “turned away” from ward 44 at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital because it was not his appointment date. Bain said the man was a promising student finishing his tertiary level education at the College of Sciences Technology and Applied Arts of TT and was on his way to becoming a computer specialist.

Bain also claimed a patient with sickle cell was turned away while in crisis because he did not have a clinic appointment on that day. She said, “If you get there after 9 am you would be turned away regardless of how far you have journeyed from.

They tell you to come back tomorrow even if your blood count is low. It is ridiculous.”

Bain called for the authorities to pay attention to the PoSGH pharmacy where, the wrong medication was recently dispensed to a patient. She alleged that the patient with sickle cell was given medication used for treating epilepsy instead of the medication for preventing infections.

She also complained about the severe shortage of qualified haemotologists from the health service although approximately 8,000 people had blood disorders. She said toddlers and patients up to the age of 15 years can see a paediatric haemotologist at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope while patients older than 15 years were referred to PoSGH. Bain said, “If we can import pharmacists and doctors why can’t we import haemotologists?”

She said a unit should be established for people with blood disorders which would treat the diseases and do research. She also appealed for extended hours for the National Blood Transfusion Service since blood cannot be donated on weekends.