MANAGEMENT (of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation) wishes to respond to the letter written by Ms. S. Kadaru in the 11th December, 2011 edition of the Stabroek newspaper, captioned ‘Chart lost in Emergency Department of GPH’ by stating the following:
Subsequent to investigations carried out, it was found that Ms. Kadaru’s chart was inadvertently placed between that of another patient’s, which was registered and placed to be perused by the doctor and as such a ‘duplicate’ chart had to be written for her at that time. 
It is noteworthy however that this did not severely impact on Ms. Kadaru’s  time spent at the A&E Unit, for her case was listed as urgent, which suggests that the patient could have waited an average of 4 hours before being seen and she was seen within that period where tests were run and the appropriate treatment administered.
This was an unfortunate incident and management wishes to apologise to Ms. Kadaru and any other patient who may have had to wait longer as a result of this lapse.
Further, measures have been put in place by the hospital’s administration to allow for a follow-up of patients who have been triaged but have been waiting to see a doctor.
With regard to Ms. Kadaru’s recommendations, it must be reiterated that a number system is NOT practicable in an Emergency Room; patients are seen on the basis of a triage system, and are treated according to the severity of their illnesses.
If a number system were to be employed, more confusion would be created, for some patients or their relatives may ignore the fact that someone needs urgent attention and base their frustration on the fact that they would have been given an early number.
Management however wishes to thank Ms. Kadaru for her recommendations and/or constructive criticism and again apologises for the error.