THE Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation has responded to a letter written in the ‘Letter to the Editor’s column’ of the Kaieteur newspaper of July 1, 2011, and captioned, ‘The horrors in the GPHC Maternity Ward’. Following is a copy of the letter from the Public Relations Department of the GPHC:
“Management expresses shock at the statements made in the letter and sincerely feels that some are fallacious and intended for mischief.
Foremost, the hospital has never denied the fact that due to the magnitude of patients that are admitted to the institution, via referrals, transfers, inter alia, that over-crowding sometimes occurs, thus the need for beds to be shared by patients. This is not an ideal situation; however, the hospital’s policy is not to refuse admission of any patient.
Consequently, in addition to the new In-Patient facility which is near completion, the hospital is in the planning stage of remodelling the Maternity Unit to accommodate 16 more beds, which will hopefully alleviate the trouble of over-crowding of the ward.
However, with specific reference to the statements regarding what was allegedly said by the nurses on duty, management finds same unpalatable, vulgar and simply unbelievable.
Although in the past, there have been complaints of ill-advised or even harsh statements being made to patients by different categories of staff, it has never reached this magnitude of condescension and/ or inhumanity. Additionally, if such complaints are brought to the attention of management, once proven to be true, the culpable staff is reprimanded and/or disciplined in accordance with the seriousness of the matter or complaint.
For the past few years, the Corporation has been working assiduously with the renowned Customer Care Specialist, Ms. J. Sinclair, to improve the attitude and level of professionalism of all staff of the hospital.
Finally, management is in disbelief and questions the motive of this author given the fact that the alleged incident occurred over ten months ago, and it is only now being brought to light. Moreover, the author is advised to present herself to the Office of the Chief Executive Officer for a discussion of this matter with an aim of clarifying the issue.