THE Ministry of Health (MoH), recognising a number of shortcomings at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH), says that changes are being made to address concerns.
“A number of practices that affect the quality at the hospital have been discontinued,” the Ministry of Health noted in a statement issued on Saturday.
Additionally, the ministry said that the incident reported at the WDRH regarding an asthmatic child has been investigated by a high-level team and the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO’s) report has been presented to the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.
This report, like others, will be released to the public as soon as the ministry has reviewed it.
It was reported in the media that five-year-old Jai-Devi Gurdyal passed away at the Georgetown Public Hospital after suffering an asthma attack and relatives say they were told she had been overdosed on antibiotics at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
The ministry said that it should be noted that in spite of continued challenges, improvements have been made at the WDRH.
“Medicine and medical supplies have improved from 32 per cent availability in 2020 to 90 per cent presently. Referrals from WDRH has [sic] been reduced by 87 per cent over the referrals from 2020,” the health ministry said.
According to the Ministry of Health, since the beginning of 2023, the WDRH has been playing a positive role in assisting the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to manage critical-care babies, given the heavy load that the GPHC presently carries.
“Often the NICU at GPHC cannot accommodate additional critical-care babies, since the NICU is more than 100 per cent occupied. Presently, the WDRH manages between 20 and 30 critical-care neonates per month. WDRH has been ably assisting to take off the load from GPHC,” the ministry said.
Further, concerning the Skeldon Hospital in terms of medication and medical supplies, the hospital’s reporting and the MoH’s monitoring show that the hospital maintains an availability rate of between 85 and 95 per cent.
“While we have to strive for 100 per cent every time, the situation has improved dramatically from August, 2020, when the hospital maintained an availability rate of less than 35 per cent,” the ministry added.
In the case of staffing at the Skeldon Hospital, the Region Six Health Department and the MoH have been on record admitting that staff improvement is a priority for this hospital.
In August 2020, the Skeldon Hospital had three doctors assigned, covering the hospital and nine health centres, including Orealla and Siparuta. There are presently seven doctors assigned to the Skeldon Hospital, including two Cuban doctors and five Guyanese General Medical Officers (GMOs).
As of September 29, two additional doctors have been assigned to the Skeldon Hospital and a doctor has been assigned for resident duty in Orealla and Siparuta.
According to the statement, the improvement in staffing has resulted in an increase in patient load from 17,800 in 2020 to 29,000 in 2022 and estimated to surpass 30,000 in 2023.
The ER department is estimated to see more than 12,000 in 2023, the highest number ever. From zero ultrasounds in 2020, the hospital now performs almost 3,000 ultrasound examinations per year and from fewer than 100,000 prescriptions filled in 2020, the hospital filled almost 116,000 prescriptions in 2022.
The MoH is working with the RHO of Region Six and with the hospital’s management to ensure better rostering of doctors, as it is no secret that the Skeldon Hospital is affected by the overall nursing shortage in Guyana, a challenge which the ministry said every country appears to be enduring at this time.
“The 25 nurses that are assigned to the Skeldon Hospital needs to be increased and the MoH is presently addressing this matter. This matter is compounded by no-notice absenteeism, a problem we are trying to solve,” the MoH said.