Enmore newborn transfer shows public healthcare referral system working as intended

See full statement from the Enmore Regional Hospital:

Azruddin Mohamed’s latest attack on Guyana’s public healthcare system demonstrates a troubling feature of his politics: when the facts do not support the narrative, manufacture a crisis.

His commentary surrounding the transfer of a newborn from the Enmore Regional Hospital seeks to create the impression that the hospital did not have neonatal ventilators. That is simply false.

Enmore had neonatal ventilators. At the time, they were being used to care for other critically ill babies. The medical team stabilised the newborn, identified available capacity elsewhere in the public health system, safely transferred the child, and the child is alive and well.

That is not evidence of a failed healthcare system. That is evidence of a referral system doing exactly what it is supposed to do.

No serious person should expect every hospital to have unlimited intensive-care capacity at every moment. Modern healthcare depends on networks of hospitals, specialist services, referrals and transfers. What matters is whether the patient is stabilised, transferred appropriately and receives the necessary care.

But those clinical realities are inconvenient when the political objective is outrage rather than truth.

The record of Enmore Regional Hospital is equally inconvenient. Since opening in July 2025, the hospital has recorded 33,331 outpatient visits, 25,359 emergency visits, 4,337 admissions and 556 deliveries. It has performed 125 Caesarean sections and 218 general surgeries, while delivering 51,583 laboratory tests, 19,073 X-rays, 2,329 CT scans and 6,035 ultrasounds.

These are not slogans. These are patients treated, mothers delivered, emergencies managed, surgeries performed and diagnostic services provided.

There is nothing wrong with scrutinising the Government. Indeed, public officials and public institutions must be held accountable. But accountability requires facts. Deliberately presenting a successful clinical referral as evidence of systemic failure is not accountability; it is political theatre.

More troublingly, this kind of politics risks undermining public confidence in the very doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who are caring for Guyanese every day.

Guyana’s healthcare system is not perfect, and no responsible government should pretend otherwise. But it is expanding. New hospitals are being built, diagnostic capacity is increasing, specialist services are growing, and thousands more Guyanese are receiving services closer to where they live.

That transformation should be debated vigorously. But it should be debated on the evidence.

Mr. Mohamed can manufacture a narrative. He cannot manufacture away the record.

And on healthcare, the record speaks for itself.