By Navendra Seoraj

THE hard work of the team at the Georgetown Public Hospital’s Burns Care Unit is paying dividends as the mortality rate due to burns has decreased by 33 per cent compared to statistics over the past five years.Head of the Burns Care Unit, Dr Shilindra Rajkumar, in a recent presentation, noted that despite this achievement more can be done, but lack of resources and trained professionals continue to be major limitations.

The unit has been transformed from the state it was in 17 years ago when it was run by general surgeons in the male and female surgical wards. During that period, patients were left in the open, and care was not optimum.

Conditions at the unit changed when a group of Chinese doctors came to Guyana to work there.

The Caribbean North Charities Foundation has, over the years, also made donations which have contributed to the improvement of operations at the unit. Those donations included vital equipment, in addition to helping to acquire training programmes for general surgeons and other medical professionals.

Dr Rajkumar said the good gesture of the charitable organisation has helped the unit to build a full team, comprising two surgeons and other support staff, who together work to ensure that there are regular clinics and surgeries.

Though the unit still faces major challenges, it continues to work towards providing better health care and saving lives.

“We know how expensive it is to run a state-of-the-art Burn Care Unit, since they are only present in First World countries. However, we will work with what we have, along with the support given, to provide quality service to the Guyanese public,” Dr Rajkumar said.

The Guyana founder of the Caribbean North Charities Foundation, Harry Harakh, has said he is more than pleased to give back to the unit and the hospital as a whole. Recently, the non-governmental organisation donated Cdn$13,500 worth of surgical equipment and laptop computers to the unit.

Minister of Public Health, Dr George Norton, thanking the foundation for its support, has said the Government welcomes any other support from the foundation and from Canada as a whole.

“This donation adds further to the many years of invaluable assistance and longstanding commitment of the foundation to the Burns Care Unit at the GPHC,” the Minister said. He has contended that the skin graft mesher, expansion ratio cutters, autoclave case, skin graft mesher carrier and dermatome blades will no doubt improve the quality of recovery of burn patients.

That apart, the computers will help the unit to keep up with the technological advancements by significantly aiding the process of keeping policies and procedures in digital format easily accessible online.

“All of your efforts have contributed to better care of thousands of patients which the Burns Care Unit has served, and the Guyana Government is eternally grateful for all of your support, and we at the Ministry of Public Health are very enthusiastic about these donations,” Dr Norton said.