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GPHC, West Demerara Hospital collaborate – Health Minister
Plans were in the pipeline for a number of years for the West Demerara Regional Hospital
The West Demerara Regional Hospital
to be twinned with the country’s premier health facility, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
These plans, according to Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, are currently unfolding, a move that comes at a time when the Region Three Hospital is undergoing dramatic evolution.
According to Minister Ramsaran, within a period of a year the West Demerara Hospital has moved from having one fully operational theatre to two fully operational theatres, and a number of other improvement measures are in place.
The twinning effort, according to the Health Minister, is being successfully spearheaded by GPHC’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Michael Khan. And the move to twin the hospitals will by extension allow for the public health system to be more efficient in its delivery of services. “This means that the Director of Medical and Professional Services (at GPHC), Dr. Sheik Amir, can send (medical) teams of orthopaedic surgeons, or he himself can go over to the West Demerara Hospital and do more surgeries than can be done in the limited capacity of the city hospital (GPHC),” explained the Health Minister.
He noted that while medical support will be forthcoming from the GPHC to deliver quality care at the West Demerara Hospital, there are however, several well-trained professionals already stationed there including: Anaesthesiologist, Anaesthetic Technicians and support staff, who can aid surgical processes.
Recently, the medical staffers of the Region Three Hospital were able to benefit from the expertise of a visiting George Washington University Medical Team. The team was able to conduct more than 40 surgical operations over a period of one week at both the GPHC and West Demerara Hospital.
The team had also offered its support last year to the West Demerara Hospital and was only too impressed to see notable changes at the facility when they visited recently.
According to the Region Three Health Officer, Dr. Nadia Coleman, the visiting team helped in noticeable ways to bring about needful changes at the health institution. “They have brought about a lot of changes that we plan to maintain and the Regional Administration as well is working towards maintaining what has been accomplished so far…we have two functional theatres now and we plan on making things even better,” said Dr. Coleman.
It is the expectations of health officials that the collaboration between the GPHC and the West Demerara Hospital will ensure an improvement in the delivery of service.
The West Demerara Regional Hospital was, in the not so distant past, the subject of many daunting concerns in terms of its infrastructure and even services delivered.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, in an attempt to address such concerns, during an interview with this publication, revealed that the GPHC, which has been developing its span in terms of services “has been offering to help and I think we are going to take them up on that offer to sort of twin the two hospitals.”
This strategic move, he explained, would see assistance being sent to the West Demerara facility if there is a shortage of staff in a particular area. The move, he noted, could also extend to a patient exchange programme, where the patients who require less demanding services could be moved to the West Demerara hospital and be monitored there.
“Some people don’t need an intense one on one nursing care as others, so we can utilise the facilities a little bit more rationally.”
Even as these measures are being contemplated, Dr. Persaud noted that efforts are being made to ascertain the root cause of the problems that have emerged at the Regional Hospital. He revealed that his vision for the hospital is for it to be restored to a level where it is recognised as a full Regional Hospital, providing the complete range of services for paediatrics, obstetrics, surgeries and internal medicine.
Additionally, he spoke of the need to address the ambulatory service, even as he alluded to the need for adequately trained, qualified medical, nursing and other allied health professionals such as those in the laboratory, x-ray and pharmacy departments.
He nonetheless lauded the work of the hospital’s health centre, which according to him, has been very productive.
“I think it has done its work pretty well. They (staffers) have been able to not only provide regular antenatal infant care, but they have also been able to hold regular clinics looking at high risk pregnancies.”
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