IDB says GPHC in need of urgent upgrades

Aug 24, 2022 News

wooden buildings from 19th century represent fire hazards
main operating theatre currently has just 6 rooms
general Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has 7 beds only

Kaieteur News – While the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has been renovated over the years, much more needs to be done to ensure the country’s premier referral and teaching institution is able to meet growing demands effectively.

According to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), GPHC is the main national referral hospital in the country, which functions as the Regional Hospital for Region Four – Demerara-Mahaica and the District Hospital for Georgetown. The bank said several improvements to the hospital infrastructure are necessary to overcome gaps relating to capacity, quality, and growing demand for specialist services.

In this regard, the bank said inpatient bed supply is inadequate, with some wards consistently experiencing over 100 percent occupancy rates. It said the general Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has only seven beds, and specialised ICUs and high dependency units frequently have waiting lists. As a shift progresses to more sophisticated minimally invasive surgery techniques and non-invasive procedures, the IDB said the lack of specific outpatient day recovery beds is becoming an important limitation.

Furthermore, the IDB found that the main operating theatre currently has just six rooms, which is insufficient to attend to the growing quantity of elective surgeries requested by an expanded array of medical specialists. As for the accident and emergency department, the bank said it has a bed assignment that covers merely 50 percent of demand and no areas for paediatric and psychological examination and isolation.

The IDB in its report said additional physical deficiencies exist in laboratory, pharmacy, imaging, and support services (administration, warehousing, and staff environments).

Over the years, in the absence of a master plan, the IDB said the spontaneous addition of services through improvised infrastructure and settings on the GPHC campus has created a situation of improper patient flows, supply provision, and medical waste disposal, in which transfers occur in the open environment and sometimes across public thoroughfares.

The financial institution said this generates risks of accidents and cross-contamination. In the most extreme cases, such as the maternity ward, the IDB said wooden buildings from the 19th century at GPHC are still operational and represent fire hazards due to faulty electrical installations.

Importantly, it said similar situations exist at both the New Amsterdam Regional Hospital and the Linden Hospital Complex. Kaieteur News understands that the New Amsterdam Hospital is the second largest hospital after GPHC, and along with the Linden Hospital Complex, serve a significant catchment area, including receiving patients from other regions and the hinterland. In fact, the three institutions serve 315,000 persons, nearly 40 percent of the entire population.

The bank noted, however, that both hospitals possess limited capacity in their accident and emergency departments, intensive care units, high dependency units, surgical rooms, and imaging departments. Moreover, New Amsterdam was constructed nearly 20 years ago and lacks sufficient installations for outpatient clinics, inpatient wards, and the pathology laboratory and has no buildings to house a central sterilisation unit, administration, and medical and paramedical staff on call. As for the Linden Hospital Complex, the bank said it is unable to deliver properly the full contingent of obstetric, neonatal and child health services. It also does not have a burn unit to attend to accident patients.

The IDB said strengthening these regional hospitals to provide the full contingent of level four services will also reduce the transfer of patients to the GPHC, thus reducing the patient load of that hospital.

To date, the bank has loaned Guyana US$160M, a portion of which is intended to address the issues outlined above.

The US$160M project will support interventions that will increase the number of consultations and examinations provided at the primary level of care; increase referrals to district and regional hospitals for consultations, examinations and/or procedures that require a more specialised level of care; increase access to radiology and ophthalmology services; and ensure the continuous availability of key medicines, inputs, and supplies in health facilities.

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