GPHC Emergency Medical Services deemed a success

May 20, 2014 News

By Romila Boodram
The recently launched Emergency Medical Services (EMS) programme by the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has been described as a blessing by Wendy Gill, a woman who delivered a healthy baby boy in an ambulance three Saturdays ago.

Supervisor for EMS

Gill, a Linden resident, was at the time staying by a friend in Lodge when she started experiencing severe abdominal pain.
Realizing that the baby was on its way, an ambulance was immediately summoned.
Ron Morris, a trained Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and also a shift supervisor said when he and his team reached the location he realized that something had to be done and very soon too.
“We put her on the ambulance and while the driver was heading to the hospital, I delivered the baby because his head was already protruding.” He explained that while delivering the child, his team radioed into the hospital and informed them about the emergency so that they can be prepared. The baby is now at home resting with his parents and siblings.
Emergency Medical Services are basic medical care offered to patients before they reach the hospital by trained EMT.
EMTs or Ambulance Technicians are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services. EMTs are clinicians, trained to respond quickly to emergency situations regarding medical issues, trauma injuries and accidents scenes.
They are trained to assess a patient’s condition, and to perform emergency medical procedures as needed to maintain a patient’s airway with adequate breathing and cardiovascular circulation until the patient can be transferred to an appropriate destination for advanced medical care.
Interventions include cardiopulmonary resuscitation, destination, controlling severe external bleeding, preventing shock, body immobilization to prevent spinal damage, and splinting of bone fractures.
Last January, after three weeks of intense training, 22 persons graduated as fully qualified EMTs. Eleven of them were placed at the GPHC to offer their services.
GPHC is the only medical institution in Guyana to offer this type of service, according to Morris, who added that once the service at GPHC is fully developed, it will be extended to other hospitals.

The baby boy who was delivered by the EMTs.

“We work an eight-hour shift. We have shifts from 07:00hrs to 15:00hrs, from 15:00hrs to 23:00hrs and from 23:00hrs to 07:00 hrs the next morning and we use two ambulances with at least two trained EMTs on each ambulance,” Morris explained.
How the EMS works?
When someone calls and requests an ambulance, the dispatcher would ask a few basic questions.
“First the dispatcher would ask for a call back number because sometimes we get dropped calls or private calls. Secondly, she (dispatcher) would ask for a location, how many patients and what is the emergency,” Morris said.
He further explained that once the dispatcher collects the basic information from the caller, she would dispatch a team to the location.
“When we are there, we load and if the patient is very critical we first try to stabilize him. We would check their vital signs; if they need oxygen we would gave them. We would also call the emergency room and inform them about the emergency so that they would be prepared when we get there,” the EMT supervisor explained.
He added that although there are some loose ends, the EMS programme is running smoothly.