A RECENT visit to the Upper Demerara Hospital on Blue Berry Hill Wismar, Linden, by a regional team has unearthed several alarming infrastructural faults which according to Regional Chairman Renis Morian, is a threat to life and limb. Responding to concerns raised by staff of the hospital who threatened to take industrial action if nothing is done, Morian immediately visited the hospital and was taken aback by the state in which it is.
The team was joined by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Linden Hospital Complex Dr Farouk Riyasat and Administrative Manager Trevor Vangenderen.
Listing some of the faults, Morian said emergency works were needed to rectify the situation. From entering the gate, the state of the compound was of major concern.
“If you want to recover, the environment does got a lot to do with recovering, for want of a simple labourer, the place was in total disarray, chaos and this is a healing environment,” he said.

Upon entering the building, the team noticed that no lighting was in several sections of the hospital in addition to the guard huts, which results in the guard leaving their posts at night because of the darkness.
Most of the hospital staff also gravitate in one section which has lights, leaving the rest of the building unattended, thus being vulnerable to burglars.
Several sections of the roof were caving in as a result of wood ants, several air conditioning units were not working, an entire ward is not utilised because of the state it is in, and a major water shortage were some of the challenges unearthed.
“You can’t get a hospital dealing with patients under threat, it is a risk,” the regional chairman said, adding that at any time the roof could cave in, resulting in the maiming of everyone underneath.
On Wednesday, a meeting was called and members of the RDC and LHC management discussed the way forward.

WORK TOGETHER
According to CEO, Dr Riyasat, it was decided that the RDC and the LHC will work together in completing the repairs to the hospital. The LHC, after looking at its budget, will undergo the smaller repair projects, while the RDC will take on the more complex projects such as the repairing of the roof.
“We have identified the drug situation, the wood ants invasions, the hospital the ceiling is dropping down in certain areas because of the wood ants, the lighting situation at the hospital and there are some areas outside of the hospital where there is some water lagging, so these are some of the major things we have decided that we are going to work together to rectify some of these problems,” Riyasat said.
He also spoke of the water situation which has been plaguing the hospital for some time now.
“There is a water situation there, but that is more of GWI, there are two defective pumps, two pumps burn so the pressure going to the hospital is not adequate.”
The hospital, he said, would have to use its pumps to fill the reservoir whenever water is running in the line, or would have water transported so that the patients and staff would have their needs met.

Morian called on the Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence to constitute the hospital’s board, so that these problems will be looked into before it reaches a catastrophic state.
He also suggested that the hospital have one management, since it is now managed by a tripartite system, including LHC, RDC and the Ministry of Public Health.
This matter was brought up during the recent visit from the Parliamentary Committee for the Social Services, who visited the Mackenzie Hospital but not the Wismar Hospital.