GPHC’s ER – a place that never sleeps

… sees almost 200 patients daily

By Alexis Rodney

The Accident and Emergency unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) is said to be one of the busiest places in the city, and according to Dr Zulficar Bux, it is a “place that never sleeps”.

Dr Bux is the head of the emergency unit of GPHC, an area that is the hotspot of the country when it comes to emergency medical care.
“This is the place that never sleeps. At any hour of the day, any day of the week, we are literally trying to save people’s lives,” he told the media Friday.
The emergency department, he said, turns over an average of about 150 to 200 patients every day. And these are not just patients, but persons who, if not attended to within a certain time, could lose their lives.
“It is very commendable to those who work. The almost 200 patients that come here daily, 75 per cent of them if we did not intervene, would have probably died. The staff of the emergency room is saving lives,” Dr Bux said.
He lamented that the public never hears about the lives that are being saved. However, what is being told are the negative issues and misconceptions. Dr Bux said the department has been transformed since 2010.
“This is the only emergency room in the entire country that has specialist trained emergency doctors; the only place that can provide service at a special level when it comes to emergency. Because of that, the hospital ends up being the national referral for emergency patients. Coming from as far as Baramita in Region One, (Barima-Waini), to Skeldon on the Corentyne, added to the walk-in emergency patients. So it is a widely challenging task.”
He said there are many negative comments about the emergency room and the hospital on a whole. However, the emergency room is a very dynamic place. “The whole idea is to ensure that lives are saved, and we do the right thing for the patient.”
According to Dr Bux, doctors and nurses for the most part are looked on as persons who save lives, however, some of the media paint them as though they are “villains”. He said while he cannot “put my neck on a block for nobody, no one comes to work with the intention of trying to kill somebody.”
It is a very challenging environment he said, especially since the department, like every other in the hospital are experiencing shortages.
“Can you imagine moving from 1000 to 500 beds, having an emergency department that have 17 beds and having to take care of all the emergencies in the entire country? Plus taking care of those patients who are very sick, but not admitted…? Can you imagine having 17 beds and having to take care of 80 persons that are sick at any given time? It is a very difficult task and the good thing is, we have worked with the Vanderbilt Medical Centre, that is internationally recognised as one of the pioneers in emergency medicine, to train the nurses and doctors at a level where they can handle these situations,” he said.
According to Dr Bux, one could take the emergencies that present themselves at the GPHC to any other emergency department across the country, or any other country in the Caribbean, and there will be quite a lot of failure.
“We have managed to decrease the amount of complaints and the actual number of patients who are dying because of mismanagement or having morbidities because of mismanagement. So because of good training of specialist doctors… and we are going to be starting this month, the first emergency for specialist training course for emergency nurses – the first to happen in the Caribbean.”
He said history was made when doctors were trained in this area, now the same is going to happen for the nurses.
He said he is also working with his staff to exude professionalism, admitting that there are times that they are frustrated and agitated by members of the public and will probably be on edge and say things they are not supposed to. However, he said they are working on their professionalism with the specialist programmes.
“We have improved our effectiveness and care, there are still challenges. There are doctors and nurses who are trained to decide your level of urgency. Our role is to save lives, and that’s the whole goal of our emergency.”