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Overcrowding, other issues continue to affect efficiency of GPHC’s A&E Unit
Overcrowding continues to be one of the major challenges at the Accident and Emergency [A&E] Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC]. In fact, because of this state of affairs “there were occasions when selective surgeries had to be cancelled due to overcrowding,” according to Head of A&E, Dr. Zulfikar Bux.
Dr. Bux revealed that the shortage of nurses in the Department resulted in a deliberate move to introduce a Residency Nursing programme.
“The shortage of nurses in the department has led to the development of the Residency Nursing Programme, since support from the nursing service has not been forthcoming,” he related.
Dr. Bux’s disclosure in this regard was forthcoming when the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Social Services visited the premier public health institution in May of this year.
A report on the visit to the hospital was tabled in Parliament which came out of a two-month recess yesterday.
The Committee in its report outlined that in response to the nurse shortage situation, the supervisor of the [Georgetown] nursing school revealed that there is a shortage of nurses across the country and that advertisements were sent out in an effort to employ more nurses.
Head of the Accident and Emergency Unit, Dr. Zulfikar Bux
But there hasn’t only been a shortage of nurses in the department but that of doctors too.
Dr. Bux told the Committee members that “in addressing the issue of shortage of doctors and nurses in the unit…the department has been striving to meet its full staff complement.”
Other doctors in the department also amplified the need for an enhanced staff complement in the A&E department, noting that “staffers are overworked and burnt out after long hours of work.”
It has therefore been recommended by staffers of the unit that referral of patients from other facilities should be attended to at regional facilities once these are not too critical. They have also expressed safety concerns, since there have been incidents where persons have meted out verbal and physical abuse.
In addition to the aforementioned challenges, the emergency unit has been faced with several other issues which affect the delivery of quality health care services to the public, Dr. Bux told the visiting Committee.
Among the other challenges are shortages of drugs, poor maintenance of equipment and inadequate space. In fact, the Head of Department revealed that “the issue of maintenance of equipment has been challenging to the department, since there is a lack of qualified persons in the country to maintain those equipment, hence maintenance could take some time.”
But according to Dr. Bux “some of the machines and equipment are vital to the department.” Among these, he named the electrocardiography [ECG] machine. He also spoke of lengthy waits for lab results which can range from six to eight hours. The unavailability of a portable x-ray machine in the department which affects the efficiency in patient care was also highlighted by Dr. Bux, who noted that “a portable x-ray machine would assist patients who are unstable and cannot be wheeled out of the department.”
A suggestion made by the Committee during its visit was that there should be more than one of each requisite machine/equipment in the department to avoid disruption and long waiting hours for patients. But Dr. Bux in response informed the members of the Committee that the Hospital’s Board of Directors has implemented a plan with the hope of eliminating the shortage of machines, equipment, drugs and other medical supplies.
Chairperson of the Board, Ms. Kesaundra Alves, in substantiating Dr. Bux’s disclosure, revealed that the GPHC had implemented a plan to perfect four departments within the hospital. She disclosed that these departments are the A&E, Internal Medicine, Paediatrics, and Maternity. As such, those departments were each tasked with preparing a document outlining their respective needs in terms of drugs, machines, equipment and medical supplies which will help them to provide optimal services.
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