Latest update January 8th, 2025 4:30 AM
Latest News
- ‘Our Stabroek Block estimate is higher than Exxon’s 11B barrels figure’ – Hess CEO
- Exxon to focus on exploring and appraising more of Stabroek Block before licence expires in 2027 – Routledge
- ‘All hell will break out’ if Gaza hostages aren’t released’—Trump warns
- Chinese company sitting on US$16B worth of gold at Guyana’s Aurora Gold Mine
- Guyana records 60% increase in workplace deaths in 2024 – Labour Minister
GPHC A&E department burdened with nation’s accident and emergency cases
– efforts to boost capability of GPHC emergency unit underway
On almost any given day, the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, (GPHC) attracts significant numbers of persons, seeking medical attention for one issue or another.
GPHC’s Director of Emergency Services, Dr Zulfikar Bux
According to GPHC’s Director of Emergency Services, Dr Zulfikar Bux, the tiny area known as the A &E manages not only the city ‘s accident and emergency cases but the entire country as well.
As a result, Dr Bux said that GPHC has been working to boost the capability of the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department.
Bux , a trained emergency medicine specialist, explained that the department has been working to expand the facility and to train their human resources to improve the department’s efficiency and effectiveness.
According to him, over the past five years at least eight physicians have been trained under the emergency medical specialist programme.
“The whole idea is that if we want to have a sustainable system we need to make use of your existing resources. And that has been ongoing. We have been training emergency doctors but it’s not the doctors alone that we have working in the emergency room.”
“We want to have trained nurses as well. Emergency medicine is more team-based than anything else because the cases that come to you are very acute and everyone needs to know their roles right off the bat,” Dr Bux explained.
He said that it is therefore imperative for the hospital to be equipped with trained emergency nurses, doctors and technicians “who can work hand in hand to improve efficiency of care.”
“That is one of our biggest challenges. How can we improve efficiency of care without sacrificing the effectiveness of care?”
At present, the doctor said that the hospital’s current emergency team operates in shifts.
“We already have a trained specialist always on shift. Currently the emergency specialist supervises the nurses and doctors to ensure that we have that effective care that we need.”
To further improve capability the Emergency Department Head said that the hospital has been providing initial emergency training to nurses.
According to Dr Bux, the nurses can now access further training via the emergency care programme offered by the University of Guyana.
“We are hoping to start the programme in October. By the end of two years we could have about 25 trained graduate emergency nurses”.
The doctor stressed, however, that while the goal is to improve capability of the staff to provide effective care, the A&E department has been “stretched to meet the increasing demands of the public.”
“Unfortunately emergency medical care can only be accessed at GPHC”.
“The unfortunate situation is that it has created a demand that we still are stretching our resources to meet… Waiting time at the Emergency Room has increased owing to the number of patients who seek attention at the A&E instead of utlising the services of a health centre …”
“And if you check the reports, persons are not complaining about the malpractice or lack of care at the A&E, but about waiting long.”
Notwithstanding the aim for effective and quality care, Dr Bux said that the demands are high and the A&E is critically unstaffed.
The emergency medicine programme was established almost six years ago.
The project has received tremendous support from the Vanderbilt Medical Center and the Morris Foundation in the U.S.A.
The Medical Centre, which is renowned for being one of the best Emergency Hospitals in the U.S.A, has been collaborating with the Ministry of Health and the GPHC, to develop Emergency Medicine in Guyana. It has thus far trained three specialist emergency doctors and is expected to graduate 12 others, over the next two years.
These doctors are expected to continue the development of Emergency Medicine so that Specialised Emergency Medicare will become accessible to Guyanese.
The Vanderbilt Medical Center has also partnered with the Morris Foundation, to provide Guyana with the necessary resources for the development of this sector.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
The Horse Racing Authority Bill will solve nothing!
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The Horse Racing Authority Bill of 2024, though ostensibly aimed at regulating horse racing... more
Forget Begging Rich Nations: Caribbean Countries Should Act to Save Themselves
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- It has long been evident that the world’s richest nations, especially those responsible... more
Weekend Cartoon
