Latest update January 31st, 2025 7:15 AM
Latest News
- Exxon deal cannot be reversed – Min. Teixeira tells National Assembly
- Norton slams govt. heavy reliance on oil fund for 2025 Budget amid declining oil prices
- 67 killed after jet hits helicopter in Washington
- Man killed after concrete slab collapsed on him
- 16-yr-old girl killed by 40-yr-old lover at Baramita
Parliamentarians visit Diamond Regional Hospital
CEO given three months to “get the hospital up-to-date”
“I am looking at the condition of your sink, the floor and I am thinking that this facility is only seven years old, Imagine your home,” the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)’s Member of Parliament, Indra Chandarpal, said to the Diamond Regional Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Mana, yesterday during a tour of the facility.
Chandarpal advised Mana that “a little bit of cleaning can make a difference.” She urged him to take care of the facility as anyone would do to their home.
Mana showing the Parliamentarians around the Pharmacy yesterday.
The PPP/C member, persons from the Social Sector Committee and A Partnership for National Unity’s, Joan Baveghems, were given a walk-through tour of the facility by Mana. The purpose of the visit was to observe the conditions at the hospital and make recommendations to solve some of the problems.
Chandarpal explained that yesterday’s visit was “part of a continuation of the visits that are being made by the Social Sector Committee. It is the trend that we have started at the West Demerara hospitals.”
According to the PPP/C member, the conditions at the Leonora Cottage Hospital and the West Demerara Regional Hospital were “terrible” but one month after the visit, there were major transformations, “and I am hoping that the same can happen here.”
Mana told the Parliamentarians that for almost three years, the hospital has been without an ambulance. “We got two ambulances but both are in the workshop for some time now.” The CEO also noted that for the past five years, there is a built-up of expired drugs at the facility, waiting to be dumped.
“It is bulky; it has been here for five years. We are waiting on the Food and Drug Department to send an auditor to inspect it. After the inspection, they will give us permission to discard it,” Mana noted.
This publication was told that patients don’t have to wait on medication at the Pharmacy for a while. “Patients don’t have to wait a while for medication. The medication is already packed; it takes only two to three minutes for them to get it.”
According to Mana, the facility does not dispense medication by prescription. “Everybody must have a patient card which means they were seen by a doctor at this hospital.” He also explained that from time to time, the hospital would assist health centres with medication.
In the laundry room, Mana said that there is a dryer but it hasn’t been working since last year, “we have a dyer but it is not working. The contractors come, they evaluate and they never come to fix it and when the rainy season comes in, it is very challenging.”
Chandarpal was impressed when she was told by the CEO that the facility saw a total of 80,012 patients for last year. She was told that all the oxygen ports are working, there is no significant shortage of medication and most importantly, the facility utilizes the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s $300M Hydroclave to dump their biomedical waste.
Chandarpal said if she had to rate the hospital, she would give the facility 80 percent. “I am impressed at the Pharmacy and the number of patients they have seen.”
“They lack some personnel. The ambulance has not been working; it has been in the workshop for close to three years. Security has been a problem, members of the public, if things are not done timely, they threatened the nurses,” the PPP/C Parliamentarian noted.
She said that three months from now, she along with the other members would visit the hospital again.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Show us the numbers!
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The government through its superior management of the economy says that it has bestowed... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
