West Dem. Regional Hospital’s orthopaedic services improved

Dec 08, 2014 News

– 83 surgeries done in about four months

During a presentation at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), on Friday, Orthopaedic Resident, Dr. Shawn Bancroft, who has been working at West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) over the last six months, noted that there have been improvements in orthopaedics.
Dr. Bancroft noted that during the period that he was stationed at the hospital, 83 surgeries were conducted- 71 elective cases and 12 emergencies. Thirty-one of the elective cases were open reduction and internal fixation, 5 removals of osteosynthetic material, 20 removals of masses, 3 manipulations under anesthesia, 6 removals of foreign body, 4 wound closures and 2 external fixations along with a number of re-admissions. This allowed the hospital to offer similar surgeries as the GPHC.
There were also minor cases that were not documented in the emergency area.
He pointed out that an initiative which was undertaken by Dr. Samaroo and team saw the commencement of orthopaedic surgeries and follow-up clinic at the WDRH. Surgeries were conducted by three teams on Thursday of every week and this resulted in 43 cases being done between the periods March 27- July 9, 2014.
He added that in July 2014 an agreement was made between the two hospitals for him to continue surgeries on Mondays and Tuesdays, and from Wednesdays to Fridays, he would be stationed at the WDRH and have a theatre day on Thursdays.
He pointed out that there were two doctors including himself, who were seeing patients at the clinic. He noted that from the time that he was stationed at the hospital to now the number of patients has doubled.
He further added that there were also 4 paediatric non-surgical admissions, six female surgical, and nine male surgical along with 12 referral cases from GPHC, which helped to take the burden off the country’s main referral hospital because only limited patients were sent to GPHC when the capacity was not available at WDRH.
He also noted that he was faced with several challenges which included theatre time not being sufficient because it closes at 21:00 hrs and the lack of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a High Dependency Unit (HDU) at the facility.
He added that the ultimate goal is to return WDRH to an efficient referral facility for Orthopaedic pathologies and also other disciplines, along with training of Orthopaedic technicians and nurses.
Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, who was also present at the ceremony, assured Dr. Bancroft that efforts are being made to address the existing challenges and stressed the importance of training.
He added that a lot has to be done in the area of management, and urged that monthly meetings are kept at both the GPHC and WDRH.
He expressed his gratitude to the doctor for the work that he has been doing. (GINA)

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West Dem. Regional Hospital’s orthopaedic services improved

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