GPHC sees COVID-19 ease as Ocean View hospital now fully functional

Nov 01, 2020 News

The Georgetown Public Hospital

The Ocean View COVID-19 Hospital

Kaieteur News – After nine months of dealing with the novel Coronavirus, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has seen an ease in their management of the COVID-19 virus, following the Liliendaal Infectious Disease Centre (better known as the Ocean View COVID-19 Hospital) being declared as fully operational.
It was confirmed by senior health officials who disclosed that the patients who were in the GPHC’s COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit and one transition patient (someone suspected to have the COVID-19 virus and is showing symptoms but is awaiting their test result), were transferred to the facility last Friday.
Kaieteur News learnt that to date, a total of 10 patients were transferred to the facility, seven transition patients and three critical care patients, who will occupy the ICU. It was stated that each patient had to be transferred “one by one” and each ambulance was sanitized after every trip to curb the possible spread of the virus.
Necessary medical equipment that was used at the GPHC was also transferred to the facility along with staff and additional medical personnel were also provided.
Further, it was noted that despite the hospital being “fully operational,” works will continue in various sections to maximize the amount of service provided to patients and to be fully efficient.
Works had been ongoing on the COVID-19 ICU at the Ocean View for a few months, in order to “ease” the GPHC’s management of the virus, as previously reported by this publication.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, stressed that it was the ministry’s overall goal since the GPHC had been the centralized unit managing of the virus since the first case being recorded in March.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper, Dr. Anthony had also highlighted that the GPHC in some instances saw a high influx of cases and lacked space.
Now with the facility being fully operational, the GPHC will be in charge of managing the Ocean View Hospital, giving them a different site and facilities to deal with COVID-19.
This, the Health Minister had said, will enable the GPHC to carry out separate functions, meaning that they will have the capacity to house patients with other illnesses, seeing more patients being able to go to the GPHC for treatment.
The previous A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition government had spent $1.6 billion to ‘rehabilitate’ the Ocean View facility; however, the money was expended with works still incomplete when the PPP/C government took office in August.
That led to an additional $750 million being spent by the new government to complete the works and operationalize the facility.

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