– President reacts to state of affairs at NA Hospital
PRESIDENT, Dr Irfaan Al,i has described the state of affairs at the New Amsterdam Hospital, as documented in a report by a team of experts headed by neurosurgeon, Dr. Amarnauth Dukhi, as “sickening”.
The President, who was at the time speaking to residents at Line Path, Corriverton, on Saturday, said efforts will be made to find solutions and resources to fix the issues at the hospital.
“I have received the report on the state of affairs of the New Amsterdam Hospital and it’s sickening. We have to now go and analyse that report, analyse the problems and find the solutions; find the resources so we can fix the problems at the New Amsterdam Hospital. We have an unwavering commitment to the people of Guyana and shall not waiver a moment on the commitment we have for you,” President Ali told the residents.
On September 1, President Ali, on a visit to Region Six, had received several complaints from residents about the delivery of poor health service in the region. He promised the residents to look into their complaints and put measures in place to address them.
A National Regional Hospital Review Committee (NHRC) was subsequently established and soon after began an investigation into the New Amsterdam Hospital.
The team of experts headed by Dr. Dukhi found that some of the complaints the President received from residents on his September 1 visit to Region Six, such as drug shortage and lack of laboratory and radiology services, were not far-flung claims.
According to Dr Dukhi, a senior doctor at the hospital corroborated the complaints that President Ali received and also explained why they occurred.
“I have been with this hospital since 2012 and I can safely say there has never been a full year, over the past eight years, that the operation theatre has been functioning properly – leaking roof, AC not functioning, mould in the ceiling, electrical issues are just a few of the problems we had to deal with,” the senior doctor at the New Amsterdam Hospital said.
The doctor noted that basic medication and supplies that are critical for the operation of the surgical unit, radiation and outpatient departments are usually in short supply or non-existent, preventing doctors from doing their work effectively.
CT SCANNER NOT WORKING
“We have a CT scanner here for the past four years and up to now it is not working; it had electrical issues, no lead on the walls, the humidity is too high in the room and now the software is being installed. So sometimes a patient comes in with a minor head injury and because we can’t perform a simple scan we have to transfer them to GPHC whereas we could send over the scans for the specialist to look at and make their diagnosis,” a senior doctor explained to the committee.
Another doctor related that the x-ray department had been non-functional for the past two months due to the unavailability of films, but over the past two years had been periodically down due to the lack of reagents to develop the films. Patients had to go to private labs or clinics to have the x-rays done or doctors were forced to proceed without them if the patient could not have afforded to get them done at private facilities, the doctor related.
He, however, noted that a new digital x-ray machine was being setup and that should hopefully fix the issues regarding e-rays.
The team has also been monitoring the numerous complaints in the media as well as those they received directly from the staff at the hospital. It would decide whether to visit the hospital for a second time or look to have a medium where the public can be engaged.
Dr Dukhi expressed optimism that some of the issues identified will be fixed in the near future so as to ensure the delivery of effective and efficient health services in the region.
“In terms of what we have found today here, there is a lot of issues; issues that can be corrected with good management strategy and having effective measures in place to deal with implementation. These issues I think can be corrected with the will, the need, and of course the resources to make things happen. Some of the things are basically managerial, having adequate resources and other materials that are needed at the regional level transferred to the region in a timely manner and if we have good management of the resources then there should be a much more improved heath response to the people,” the prominent doctor said.
