IT must be categorically stated that the management of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has no intention of engaging in a column battle with Mr. Freddie Kissoon, for he is the columnist and the hospital’s primary function is to provide invaluable health care services to the people of Guyana.
However, the misinformation that is being peddled by the author must be clarified and, as such, the Head of the Department of Orthopaedics explains accordingly.The Orthopaedic Clinics which are held three days per week is a referral clinic.  This means that patients who attend the clinic would have first been seen by another doctor at (A&E, MOPD, Health Centres, Regional Districts and Private Hospitals). These referred patients would have had the relevant X-Rays or other investigations done, although this is not used as a criterion for a patient to attend the clinic.  These referred patients are not ‘emergency patients’; referred patients who fall under the emergency category are seen at the Emergency Room.
In the event that a patient with an emergency is accidentally sent to the Orthopaedic Clinic, that patient is either admitted and treated or taken to the Emergency Room for treatment or is treated by the Orthopaedic doctor on call.

This means that the majority of patients that are seen and require new X-rays or a laboratory investigation will have these reviewed at a time that the doctor deems fit in accordance with the nature of the illness.

Every bone specialist at the GPHC operates on a minimum of two days per week. Most weeks it is three or even four days per week.  This means that the specialist attends one clinic per week. There are three specialists and therefore three clinics.  One day (Thursday) of every week is set aside for discussions of complicated cases that are seen in the wards or in the clinics during the previous week.

This meeting is held in the POP room as there is need for space and patients who attend these meetings are asked to do so by their respective doctors.

On no occasion in the past 20 years has the department or the doctors evaluated more than 10 patients at any one of these meetings.
These patients for discussions are advised to have a relative accompany them and therefore one may see a larger number of persons at the POP room than actual patients.

It is the function of every Medical and Surgical Department of all tertiary referral hospitals in any part of this world to have daily morning meetings when the activities of the previous day (i.e. the admitted patients, patients who would have had surgery, patients who would have developed complications while in hospital or patients who would have died) are discussed and as was noted in the first response, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation is the ONLY teaching hospital in the country.

During these meetings, medical knowledge is shared, surgeries and patient management strategies are planned and advised or criticisms are given.   It is compulsory for Medical Students and Interns to attend these meetings. They learn from them and it is part of their training.

These daily morning meetings start at 08:00 hrs and are completed in a timely manner so that doctors can attend clinic,do ward rounds and perform surgeries as early as possible.  On Thursday however, there is no Orthopaedic Clinic or elective surgery and, as such, more time is spent discussing complicated and interesting cases before patients in the wards are seen.