-Dr. Anthony says ‘full spectrum’ of care will be offered once ICU is up

THE full activation of the $1.6 billion infectious diseases hospital is expected soon, as authorities are awaiting the arrival of critical equipment to complete the retrofitting of the facility, which is located at the site of the former Ocean View Hotel.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, has said that there is no fixed date for the completion of the facility because there is no specific time for the arrival of critical “pieces of equipment” which were already purchased by Government.

“There is no fixed date…some pieces of equipment have to be brought into the country…we have to import them and there is no fixed time now for when those pieces of equipment would land in Guyana.

“So that would be a constraining factor…but all that they (contractors) can do here by running lines and so on, they have done that…so we are just awaiting the arrival of those pieces of equipment,” said Dr. Anthony during an interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Monday.
The equipment will be used mainly for the establishment of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the hospital. As it is now, the country has only one COVID-19 ICU, and this is located at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

The infectious diseases hospital, in its current state, only caters for mild cases, said Dr. Anthony, adding: “We have patients there, about 29 patients in one section of the hospital…these are mild cases, but what we are doing now, is preparing for more moderate to severe cases of COVID-19.”

Although 80 per cent of the persons who contract COVID-19 recover from the disease without needing hospital treatment, around one in every five persons who gets this disease becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing.

Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart and lung problems, diabetes, or cancer, are at higher risk of developing serious illness.  However, anyone can contract COVID-19 and become seriously ill.

Persons who experience the severe forms of COVID-19 would need ventilators and other equipment, which are available in an ICU.
“They would need the ICU equipment, which is what we are now working on to install…as it is now, if there are problems with mild cases we have to bring them to GPHC so we can provide them with care,” said Dr. Anthony.

The completion of the ICU facility at the hospital would also be timely because the country has recorded a large number of deaths related to COVID-19 within the past two months. The country has so far lost 104 persons to this scourge.
“Once we get that facility up and running we will be able to provide the complete spectrum of care in that facility so persons do not have to go anywhere else,” said Minister Anthony.

Dr. Anthony had told this publication that the facility, which was built under the former APNU+AFC administration, was just a “shell”, so a lot of adjustments had to be made before patients could be housed there.

It was reported that the hospital had glaring inefficiencies, but Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo, had said taxpayers’ money cannot be wasted.
The former Government had said the new facility will serve as the first all-inclusive infectious diseases facility, and would eventually remove the constraints from GPHC and the regional and district hospitals.

It was reported that the facility has a capacity for 190 beds and also caters for laboratories, a pharmacy, an ICU, an operating theatre and even a mortuary. A section of the facility was also set to house the Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC), a surveillance centre, a research centre and administrative offices.

A closer examination of the facility by the new Government revealed major inefficiencies in not just the physical aspect of the project, but also the deal between the former Government and the owner of the former hotel, Jacob Rambarran.