The LHC is working quietly and conscientiously to fulfill its mandate to the health sector

Oct 07, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
From time to time the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) has been a target for negative comments; however, in spite of this the management and staff of LHC have been working quietly and conscientiously to fulfill our mandate to the health sector and the region Ten community as a whole.  We have had our successes and our failures.  The successes have been numerous but these go unheralded.  Our failures have been few but these are blown up to appear as though it is a norm.
Recently, we were accused of transferring large numbers of patients to the GPHC and the impression given is that we do very little at LHC.
All hospitals, health and diagnostic centres in Guyana operate at various levels of capability categorised by the services offered at that particular health institution.  The LHC is no different. Of the three hospitals which make up LHC, Wismar and Kwakwani are categorised as level three hospitals and LHC operates at a category four level. The GPHC operates at the highest level which is category five.
Under this arrangement, patients from health centres categorised as level two can be transferred to health institutions which operate at higher levels. There are similar arrangements occurring in the various regions across the country. This system is based on the fact that hospitals are staffed and resourced differently with GPHC being equipped with the highest capability the country could afford.
In keeping with this, our physicians are aware of the cases they are able to handle and which of those cases should be referred to GPHC. There are some factors which we can control and which we are working on to reduce the referral rate, such as; having a functional ICU for after surgery care, increasing the number of anesthetists at our facility, having an experienced neonatologist on staff and having a resident orthopedic surgeon.
Speaking in Parliament in June 2010, the Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy in response to a question raised by an opposition Parliamentarian, reported that for 2009, there were 3,200 referrals to the Emergency Department and 603 referrals to the Maternity Ward of GPHC from regional hospitals.
He further explained that the reasons for referrals varied from region to region, but the most common reasons were; the incapacity to deal with certain surgical cases, high risk maternity cases and complicated malaria.
Since the commissioning of the new State of the Art Linden Hospital Complex on the 2nd December, 2009 to present a total of 179 cases have been referred to the GPHC, while a total of 30,383 outpatients and 3,745 inpatients visited our facility. The total number referred from LHC compares to 1,092 being referred to GPHC Accident and Emergency from Region Four, 827 from Region Three and 479 from Region Five. The regions which sent the most maternity cases to GPHC last year were Region One with 115 and Region Four with 147 cases respectively.
Linden Hospital attests to its capability of performing surgeries one week after the need has been identified for bilateral tubal ligations, evacs, hydrocele, keloids, breast lumps, myomectomies, non-emergency caesareans, hysterectomies among others.  This is not generally common in many hospitals even the recognised ones overseas where waiting lists are extremely long.
Recently amidst the criticisms we were happy to receive some commendations from a prominent businessman attached to the James and Sons Grocery Store who spent some time at our institution as an inpatient. He spared no effort in applauding and showing appreciation for the care he received. He further stated that his observations revealed that senior and junior nursing staffs were very alert and dispensed care courteously and professionalism to him and other patients who were within his purview in the hospital’s male ward. He concluded that what he experienced at LHC was very different from what was being uttered by some citizens of the community.
The Linden Hospital Complex has been able to employ a batch of competent new doctors to complement the services offered by some of the more experienced practitioners.  It is unfortunate that over recent years some of the more experienced doctors left and the only ones available for their replacement are the ones who have recently graduated.  This has been happening in other health institutions across the country.  However, senior doctors including our consultants do guide and advise their younger counterparts, this ensures that the quality of service provided by the medical staff does not suffer as a consequence.  At the same time, we capitalise on every opportunity to constantly send our doctors on additional upgrading courses whenever such opportunities are presented.
The LHC hopes that this article helps the public to understand what we do and why and to further understand why a hospital described as being state-of-the-art because of its modern facilities, including its equipment, infrastructural facilities and quality of service still will not be able to provide all the services which for example GPHC now provides.
Reycia Nedd
Public Relations Officer
Linden Hospital Complex

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