GPHC to buy new $26 million heart ultrasound machine

Oct 14, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), the country’s main referral hospital is set to benefit from a new $26 million Cardiac Ultrasound System for its Echocardiology Laboratory.

This is according to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) which revealed on its website that following the national competitive bidding process, they have awarded the US$134,634 ($26M) contract to Salus Medical Inc. to supply and commission the ultrasound system at the GPHC.

Kaieteur News understands that Salus Medical Inc. is a local medical distribution company which was officially launched in April 2022.

The new cardiac ultrasound system is set to boost GPHC’s Echocardiology Lab capacity after authorities had discovered that there was a backlog of echocardiogram being done at the hospital.

In August, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at a press conference stated that due to the backlog of ultrasounds and the echocardiogram; President Irfaan Ali and other Government officials convened with the operators of the private hospitals to arrange for them to be paid to clear the backlog of the tests.

An echocardiogram, or “echo”, for persons unfamiliar with the term is a scan used to look at the heart and nearby blood vessels. An echo is a type of ultrasound scan.

“So we discovered over 2000 backlog of ultrasound and the echocardiogram that is about several hundred nearly a thousand of those backlogs at the GPHC (Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation),” Jagdeo had said.

It was stated that a meeting was held at State House, where officials from hospitals including St. Joseph Mercy, Woodlands, Balwant Singh, Sheriff, and Davis Memorial met with President Ali, and Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.

Jagdeo added, “And we decided that they will help us clear the backlog, by paying them to clear the backlog.”

According to the Vice President, the hospitals were charging $6,000 to $8,000 for an ultrasound, and $12-$15,000 for an echo. However, he noted that through negotiations, the hospitals agreed to charge $4000 and $6000 each to clear backlog of the ultrasound and echo, respectively.

“And that has allowed us now to clear a lot of the backlog, they had extra capacity, because we care about the people and we did it with all the hospitals so that we can clear up the backlog for people there,” Jagdeo added.

Notably, he had also shared that the Government is slated to buy three machines to do the echocardiogram.

Commission, Echocardiology Laboratory, Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Medical, National Procurement and Tender Administration Board

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GPHC to buy new $26 million heart ultrasound machine

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