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GPHC dissociates self from dumped syringes

Aug 11, 2009 News

– disappointed with Mayor Green’s comments

The Management of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has dissociated itself from the pile of syringes that were callously dumped along Lamaha Street, a state-of-affairs that had been highlighted in this newspaper.
In a release issued yesterday, the management stated that the public hospital has always undertaken the correct procedure of waste disposal which is in accordance with World Health Organisation standards.
The response came in the wake of an article published in the Monday Edition of this newspaper under the headline ‘Health officials were alerted about dumping syringes before – Mayor Green’.
The article sought to highlight the Mayor’s disclosure that he had some time ago, been suspicious that unknown persons from the hospital had been engaging in the dangerous activities.
According to the Mayor, in the article, his concerns were at that time brought to the attention of the relevant hospital authorities and an arrangement had come into being between the hospital and the municipality for the proper disposal of its waste.
But according to the hospital’s release, “the Management of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) views with disappointment and grave concern the inaccurate statement
made by the Mayor of Georgetown.”
The release underscored that the Mayor in the article sought to make the hospital culpable for the dumping of the syringes. The GPHC emphasised in the release “that it is in no way associated with the dumping of the hazardous materials which were discovered.”
The management further noted its expressed surprise that the Mayor had endeavoured to make an assumption to the press without first making contact with the hospital for verification.
The release further highlighted that although the Mayor admitted in the article to not having all of the facts, he yet offered his comments based on his suspicions, adding that statements which bring an organisation into disrepute should not be made based on suspicions, but facts.
The GPHC, the release stated, “prides itself on the various measures employed over the years, and procedures which we continue to put in place, to ensure that all our hazardous materials are disposed of in a manner which does not pose any danger to members of the public.”
Further it was noted that as is mandated by the Ministry of Health, all medical infectious waste generated within the GPHC, including sharps, are safely collected daily by the hospital’s sanitation department staff and taken for temporary storage in a regulated/authorised, access-only Secondary Holding Unit, situated in the north-western end in the northern compound (Lamaha and Thomas Streets).
The release, added that the Mayor and City Council’s Solid Waste Management Department is then tasked with removing the aforementioned waste on a scheduled basis.
Additionally, it was disclosed that the hospital has been working in collaboration with the Guyana Safer Injection Project (GSIP) for the past five years, educating staff members about the proper disposal methods for such materials. It was noted too that staff members are constantly undergoing training in this area to ensure that their own safety and that of the general public is not compromised in any way.
Currently, staffers are undergoing further training, via several workshops, on a technologically improved Healthcare Waste Management System, which will enable them to sterilise all infectious waste generated at this facility, the release added.
And according to the hospital management, the corporation also has active Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and Quality Assurance (QA) departments which ensure that even within the hospital the correct method is used to store such materials.

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