A&E Dept was being overburdened by cases – GPHC CEO

…says steps have been taken to reduce waiting time

While many have complained of the waiting time at the Georgetown Public Hospital over the year, the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) believes that much of this was because the emergency department was being overburdened by cases.
In an exclusive interview with Guyana Times, Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) CEO, Retired Brigadier George Lewis opined that a number of patients were going to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department for cases that should have been dealt with by the outpatient department.
“I think the biggest thing about the waiting time is Accident and Emergency. People were going to the Accident and Emergency Department who had no business going there: they were going there for a nail bore….
“Now obviously if you are there at six o’clock and at eight o’clock, someone come in with a respiratory injury or some accident victim, the person will get seen before you. Those persons use to complain and say, ‘oh’ they were there before’.”
According to Lewis, they have, nevertheless, been able to reduce the waiting time of patients. He noted that this was achieved through a more collaborative approach between the staff of different departments.
“Now, with the reintroduction of the medical outpatient being open until 08:00, more people are channelled there away from Accident and Emergency. Many times, if you go to medical outpatient at 16:00 and 17:00 in the afternoon, it’s a walk in and walk out,” Lewis noted.
It was announced previously that the GPHC would be moving towards an electronic medical records system – the Government Health Information System (GHIS), in a bid to improve service at the institution.
Besides incorrect referrals, the GPHC has also had to contend with cases of older persons being taken to the hospital for medical treatment by their families and being abandoned at the institution.
It was noted late last year that from the statistics released by the hospital, those numbers increase at the end of each year.
Lewis had told the media last year that such situations usually occur in the months of November and December annually. He noted that elderly persons are taken to the hospital to be treated for minor illnesses and when they are ready to be discharged, their relatives disappear and cannot be located.
“Or they bring them to the Accident and Emergency Department and by the time they are treated, they are no longer there and when you check the information that they delivered to the clerks who recorded the vitals for the persons, it is that the information is incorrect. You cannot make contact with the persons. That is a challenge for us,” the CEO told the media.
He had stated that in order to remedy such situations, very soon, the GPHC would be introducing the electronic medical records system. One of the requirements with the introduction of this system will be that persons bringing patients to the GPHC for any treatment would have to produce pictorial identification.