Dear Editor,
This is a long overdue move, that is, the GPHC’s moving to the High Court over ‘vendor encumbrances around the hospital.’ The whole thing of selling in that precinct or nearby vicinity is abhorring.
Over all, street vending near hospitals is often considered a poor practice due to significant public health, safety, and logistical concerns. While street vendors can sometimes offer convenience and food, their proximity to any healthcare facility introduces high risks, including the spread of pathogens, lack of nutritional options, and traffic congestion, all of which can result in avoidable fatalities. I am really all for the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s filing the “…. legal proceedings in the High Court, seeking to compel the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (GM&CC) to remove vendors and other obstructions from streets surrounding the country’s main public health facility.”
Editor, we are in a rapidly changing Guyana, and as societies keep evolving and the various determinants of health are becoming more and more enlightened and understood, it has quite clear that what determines health is how society overall, rather than the health care system alone, is organized. The GM&CC, being the level of government closest to the day-to-day life of citizens, local public health agencies and municipal governments have an important impact on health directly and indirectly through, among other functions, policing and community safety, transit and transportation, zoning, housing and the environment, and social services. My point is that local decisions and policies can and should be designed to meet the specific health needs of each community. This is important, as the particular health issues and the potential interventions that can mitigate them may well differ between different communities in priority, form, and magnitude. Perspectives on issues held in common may also vary between local and higher orders of government, which can result in different opinions on what needs to be addressed to safeguard population health.
In this backdrop then, the GPHC is very much in order for “… asking the court to order the removal of “food, beverage and other vendors and hucksters… including vehicles, push-carts, drays, barrels, boxes, dust-bins, pallets, structures and all things left, placed or stored on the street, parapet and pavement” in areas surrounding the hospital.” Without waiting for legal intervention, the GM&CC should have been spearheading this as a default role, especially in the ‘name of health and well-being.’ For too long, these areas (Lamaha Street, East Street, New Market Street and Middle Street-corridors described as critical to the hospital’s daily operations), have been ‘humbuggingly’ infested, and this must not go on.
The general ‘best practices’ norm is that local public health practice policies have on occasion been driven by municipal decisions. Conversely, municipalities have sometimes tailored provincial decisions to better fit the relevant community context. What has been prevailing for too long is an unacceptable situation where public health and safety concern are facing too many encumbrances that are obstructing easy access for both patients and staff. A mere casual survey will show that vendors have been affecting quite negatively ‘ingress to and egress from’ the GPHC, resulting in the hampering of the medical and professional staff as well as patients seeking medical services, especially via emergency vehicles.
I surmise that the GM&CC will be peeved, but let us remember that health must not be stymied. This said body is definitely acting in a way that is quite inimical to the well-being of the city and the country as a whole. For example, we recall the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, having to sound a stern warning to Mayor Alfred Mentor and the M&CC for their illegal attempt to implement a controversial “financial regulation” that seeks to waive interest on outstanding property rates and taxes. The truth is that in seeking this ruse, the M&CC is arrogating to itself the legal authority to enact such a regulation. The law only allows for this via the Minister of Local Government, who has the power to make financial regulations for local councils (as outlined in the Municipal and District Councils Act). This by itself is not automatic and the process is quite long and detailed.
I am in no way surprised therefore that this specific dereliction of duty forms a part of the modus operandi of the GM&CC. It is quite clear that they are revolting, as under the Municipal and District Councils Act and the City’s by-laws, the council has a clear, non-discretionary obligation to keep public spaces free from obstruction. Succinctly put, it is that “the City Council has failed to uphold its legal responsibilities under the Municipal and District Councils Act.”
Hopefully, this matter will be resolved and the GPHC will be facilitated in its desire to better serve the public.