Muna in an interview yesterday said CHC quality management coordinator Karen Buettner was just “trying to describe what physicians must do without specific laboratory tests” when she told lawmakers on Friday that doctors at the hospital were “guessing.”
Muna said there’s a lot more about that doctors can do to diagnose patients despite the lack of reagents.
She said the 22 reagents used in testing ailments are just among the tools in laboratory tests.
“Although they don’t always have the most cost-effective tools to aid them, there are other aids they can use including their professional expertise of examining and assessing the patients,” Muna said, referring to CHC’s doctors.
The Senate Committee on Health and Welfare invited Muna and other Public Health officials on Friday in light of the emergency declaration at CHC due to lack of supplies to diagnose the patients.
The hospital ran out of supplies due to the government’s inability to pay vendors, one of which, Diagnostic Laboratory Services, had yet to collect over $900,000 from CHC.
Buettner told legislators that due to the the lack of testing chemicals, doctors had to guess the condition of patients including newborn babies and those suffering from heart attack.
CHC doctors are not exactly guessing the treatment of a patient, Muna said.
“Our physicians know exactly how to manage the care of our patients,” she said, adding that it is unfair and irresponsible to label as guessing what CHC physicians do at the hospital.
“They work long hours without additional compensation and have shown many times that they care for the patients,” Muna said.
The hearing, she reiterated, was about lack of funding and not about the qualifications of the doctors and other medical staff of the hospital.
