Specialist nurses needed to boost paediatric care at GPHC – Paediatric Surgeon

Nov 11, 2017 News

The support of the Baby Heart Foundation was recognised as a major element of support in delivering the paediatric care services offered at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC]. Realising augmented support in this regard is

Paediatric Surgeon,
Dr. Marissa Seepersaud

especially important when the shortage of specialised personnel, particularly nurses, is taken into consideration.
This state of affairs was amplified by Head of the Paediatric Unit, Dr. Marissa Seepersaud, who revealed that despite prevailing shortcomings, the unit has been managing to achieve its mandate with the support of the Foundation.
The Foundation first started its collaboration with Guyana in 2015 and since then, in excess of 130 children with cardiac conditions have benefited. This has helped to reduce the need for children travelling overseas for such interventions. Sending children overseas in this regard had, over the years, proven to be very costly not only to the relatives of the young patients, but Government too, which is obliged to offer financial support through the Public Health Ministry, where necessary.
As a result of the existing partnership, the Foundation has been sending a team of experts to Guyana multiple times per year to conduct surgeries. During each trip, a minimum of 15 children are usually catered to.
Lead Surgeon and Chief Executive Officer of Clinical Operations at the Baby Heart Foundation, Dr. Rodrigo Soto, who has been conducting intricate paediatric heart procedures for many years, revealed that sometimes the longer a child lives with a cardiac condition, it could mean that an intervention could become more difficult. As such, there is always a risk of mortality associated with conducting these surgeries.
But according to him, “we have been able, in 2015 and 2016, to maintain a 2.2 percent mortality rate which is extremely good, considering the average mortality in the US is three percent and in Europe it is five percent. So that is a very good outcome…we have been seeing some good results.”
Moreover, there has been enormous progress in the last two years regarding Guyana’s collaboration with the Foundation. This is in light of the fact that the Foundation has not only been offering its expertise in terms of conducting paediatric heart interventions, but also training for both doctors and nurses at the GPHC, in the hope that they will be able to eventually take over the paediatric heart surgery programme.
Dr. Seepersaud, who has been benefiting from training too, has been tipped to eventually head the programme which is expected to be on par with what obtains in the developed world, complete with a Paediatric Intensive Cardiac Care Unit at GPHC.
A Paediatric Surgeon herself, Dr. Seepersaud has revealed that even with the forthcoming support, there is no shying away from the fact that “there is need for nurses to specialise in nursing care, specifically relating to paediatric care.”
Her concerns have been detailed in a report of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Social Services. The Committee had visited the Paediatric Unit during a visit in May to the GPHC. The report of that visit was last week tabled in Parliament.
It was during the recent visit, Dr. Seepersaud revealed that the unit is in fact the lone public institution that performs paediatric cardiology. Although the unit has been recognised as especially crucial, Dr. Seepersaud disclosed that “it has been operating without its full complement, especially in the area of specialties.”
But the limited nursing situation, which has been found to be a common shortcoming throughout the hospital, is listed among others faced by the Paediatric Unit.
Dr. Seepersaud spoke of the lack of air conditioning units and highlighted that available fans are in fact insufficient.
“This causes the ward to be humid, affecting both staff and patients,” Dr. Seepersaud noted, as she listed several other challenges including malfunctioning machines and equipment that are subjected to prolonged repair time. Like other Units, it is also affected by shortages of medications.

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