MINISTER of Public Health, Volda Lawrence has said the government will soon purchase a $90M Computerised Tomography (CT/CAT) scan machine for the New Amsterdam Hospital.
She made the announcement during a recent visit to the town. The CT or CAT scan uses computers and rotating X-ray machines to create cross-sectional images of the body. The images provide more detailed information than normal X-ray images are able to provide. The images can also show the soft tissues, blood vessels, and bones in various parts of the body.

Further, a CT scan may be used to visualise the head, shoulders, spine, heart, abdomen, knee and chest, and the process entails a patient lying in a tunnel-like machine while the inside of the machine rotates and takes a series of X-rays from different angles. Those pictures are sent to a computer, where they are combined to create images of slices, or cross-sections, of the body. They may also be combined to produce a 3D image of a particular area of the body.

Meanwhile, with the computerised machine being so costly, Lawrence pleaded with the medical staff to ensure that the scanner is cared for, even as doctors extend care at a higher level, similar to that extended at the tertiary institution in Georgetown. In addition, the Minister apprised the healthcare providers about other initiatives which are to be implemented in the current year, which includes a new spacious area for laboratory technicians, who were applauded for their endurance, despite operating daily under unfavourable conditions.

“No longer will you work in choked up spaces. No longer will you be working under conditions, that if it were other places, the hospital would have been sued. I want to thank the technicians for their endurance. I want to thank them, for, despite the conditions, they came to work each day and provided services for our people,” the Minister said.
Further, the Accident and Emergency department spaces at that hospital and the tertiary institution in Georgetown are competing with the patients, doctors and technicians, resulting in overcrowded beds. As a result of these conditions, the hospital will undergo a soon to unfold, expansion project.

With respect to human resources, Minister Lawrence thanked the medical personnel for their rendered services and vowed to have improved working conditions across the board despite one’s location, be it at Paramakatoi, in the Potaro-Siparuni Region or at Orealla, along the Corentyne River in Berbice.