Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 17, 2016 News
– “Overcrowding will be a thing of the past”- Minister Norton
Come next month, overcrowding at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC)’s Maternity Unit will be a thing of the past following the completion of the facility’s new wing.
This is according to the Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton.
In the 2016 National Budget, $89M was set aside for the development of the facility’s maternity unit. Apart from the new wing, the unit will benefit from table-top foetal heart rate monitors, handheld foetal heart monitors and portable ultrasound machines.
Also, the Minister explained that the new facility will have 50 beds and a 17-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), an Operating Theatre and birthing rooms that are sound proof. “The beds will not be so cramped. Sharing a bed will be something in the past,” Norton said.
Kaieteur News was told that construction at the site is moving apace. The upgrade will see mothers and their newborns benefitting from better patient care while being cared for at the facility.
Up to last month, four persons were made to share one bed at the unit—two mothers and their newborns. Overcrowding has actually become a norm at the hospital’s Maternity Unit.
This newspaper was told that since the opening of the maternity unit in 1988, adequate spacing has always been a challenge; however, the new wing is expected to add some relief to the problem.
A few months ago, a pregnant woman claimed that she was turned away while in labour, by the hospital’s maternity ward, because there was no bed available. However, the medical institution claimed that the woman was not turned away. In fact she was advised that she was not ready to deliver, the hospital claimed.
However, the source did explain that mothers would usually be admitted when they arrive at the hospital in pain during their final stages but because there was a limited amount of beds available on that day; she was asked to go home and rest until she was ready.
The source explained that while there might be a limited number of beds at the facility at one time, there might be a lot of free beds at another time.
“We have different seasons. Sometimes we have a lot of pregnant mothers and then there are times when we don’t have that many and all the beds are free then. So no matter how many beds more we get, the situation will still be the same,” the source explained.
The hospital delivers about 400 babies per month from February to May, then 300s in June and July, and it climbs back up to 400s in August. This continues to fluctuate for the rest of the year.
This total amounts to 60 percent of the babies born in Guyana.
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