More Safety Measures Needed at Hospitals

Feb 26, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
The editorial of February 8, 2018 is rather enlightening as it pinpoints various advances in the Health Care system in Guyana. However, many simple procedures seem to have been relegated to the dark end of the spectrum of cleanliness and safety.
For example, at the West Demerara Hospital at Best, a stone’s throw away from any patients’ bed, there are pools of stagnant water, some of which have originated from septic systems and spill overs from wash sinks.
Additionally, there are bushes as high as 10 feet in the same vicinity coupled with over spilling of garbage due to a lack of garbage containers. Mosquitoes abound! This scenario is commonplace in almost every hospital, especially in the rural areas of the country and the management is solely to blame as these conditions can easily be corrected. If this is not done, suffice it to say in Guyanese lingo: you go in the hospital with one disease and come out with another.
In regard to safety, most of the 30 public and private hospitals could be in danger of not being up to par with building codes designed for hospitals worldwide. By this I mean the conditions which encompass laboratory and diagnostic instruments and expensive chemicals as well as the safety of people — both patients and health care professionals. A cursory examination of many hospitals reveals that a few safety measures are urgently needed.
1. Storage bonds which contain billions of dollars of various medications do not have the requisite number of security guards and electronic surveillance needed for its protection. Some do not have the correct temperature and humidity required to preserve medicines which can precipitate the deterioration of dugs ahead of the expiry dates.
2. Many do not have the directional painted signs and markings needed to guide first time patients and visitors and thus prevent them from getting lost.
3. Floors also need directional arrows as poor lighting and constant blackouts could invariably lead to confusion.
4. Some do not have proper Exit (neon) signs, which in emergency situations could be a life saver.
5. Sprinkler systems which are virtually non-existent Guyana and are a tremendous impediment for fires should be installed in all hospitals.
6. Early warning systems for fires such as smoke detectors are a dire necessity for High Occupancy Buildings (HOB). They should be placed hallways and staircases, the paths which smoke travels the fastest.
7. All hospitals must have their own generators as a back up to their regular source of power from GPL grids.
Above all else, the aforementioned safety measures, along with education (which should be taught in schools) and TV infomercials, Guyana can progress to an era of acceptable health care. The government must do all within its power to make sure that safety saving of lives is a topmost precedent.
The saying that “prevention is better than cure” holds true in this situation because, in the final analysis ‘ALL LIVES MATTER’.
Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine
Real Estate Builder, New York

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