Following numerous complaints surfacing of persons being left untreated or unattended for hours at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) Emergency Room, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Hospital, Brigadier (Ret’d) George Lewis has reminded that the Emergency Room (ER) was specifically for emergency cases, and persons with minor illnesses should visit the outpatient unit.
Lewis gave the reminder at a recent press engagement at the Hospital.
According to him, persons turn up at the facility with a mere cold or flu, whereas
GPHC CEO Brigadier (Ret’d) George Lewis
the Emergency Room was designed for the purpose of treating emergency cases, such as accidents.
“The whole thing about emergency services is it is emergency services. The Accident and Emergency Department is meant to attend to certain types of injuries, trauma type of injuries, accidents and so on. For the person who has a common cold, that is not the place to go,” he said.
For persons with minor ailments, the CEO pointed out that they could be treated and sent away at the outpatient unit, which is open daily until 20:00h except on Sundays.
The CEO sought to clarify some of the cases which could be treated at the various departments in the Hospital. “If a person has a common cold, a cut on the leg, then I advise them not to go to the Accident and Emergency Department, because if you go to the Accident and Emergency Department, you may be there before other persons, but if there is a person that goes to the Accident and Emergency Department with a pain in the chest or multiple accidents with broken limbs and bleeding profusely, obviously the person who goes there with a headache will not be attended to, priority will go to the person whose life is threatened,” he explained.
Lewis was keen to note that persons might be there for a long period of time and would usually see persons coming in the hospital and being treated before them; however, this is the Hospital carrying out its mandate to serve those who are urgently in need of healthcare. Although it may annoy some patients, the Head of the health institution made it clear that the medical professionals will attend to those whose lives are at risk first.
In the past, scores of persons have complained of not being treated in a timely manner at the GPHC’s Emergency Department.
