Infectious Hospital ready to treat isolated COVID-19 patients

…permanent water, electricity challenges being addressed

This week, the Infectious Hospital at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown will house its first set of patients as part of the Phase One plan to treat isolated patients who have contracted COVID-19.
On Sunday, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony facilitated a media tour of the building to get a first-hand view of the works which are currently ongoing to complete the facility.
Phase Two, which will tackle intensive care patients, will materialise at a later date when the necessary medical equipment is installed.
For now, those who do not require intensive care will be transferred. There is also room for persons who are awaiting test results.
The new COVID-19 specialised centre is equipped with a control room, infirmary, isolation and intensive care rooms, laundry area and other facilities to effectively tackle all aspects of treatment. The new Government has sought to equip the building in recent weeks with beds and other equipment so that it can function.
While giving an update, the Minister said that they were seeking to have patients transferred to the facility today. These are persons who can self-isolate and do not need extensive treatment.
Each room is self-contained and equipped with key necessities that are needed by patients.

Dr Anthony said they remained hopeful that persons could be admitted by today.
“This facility has 197 beds. While we will have the isolation section, we’re also looking at persons who are awaiting their tests, which is the section on the eastern side…We’re preparing the place and I’m very optimistic that by tomorrow (Monday), we can now have the first set of patients utilising this facility,” he indicated.
Dr Anthony pointed at some challenges which they faced to ensure that amenities were secured. One of the tasks was ensuring that there was stable electricity and through collaboration with the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), two generating systems were installed.
“Our biggest challenge as of yesterday was ensuring that we have stable electricity into the building…We have GPL on the ground, looking for a solution to this…They have come up with a technical solution to assist us and I’m extremely pleased that as of this morning, they started putting in those transformers and they have assured us that very shortly that they will be powering the building. We now have electricity in place,” Dr Anthony said.
Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar and Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Albert Gordon were onsite to ensure that the works were completed in an efficient manner.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister pointed to water as another challenge, but highlighted that they were assisted by a team from the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) to address the setbacks to be encountered when patients are admitted. Water will be taken every day to the facility until a permanent solution is completed.
“The next challenge that we had was water. While we were working to resolve, we had a team from GWI was also here. To connect to the public system, there are some technical challenges that we have to overcome, but they have agreed in the interim, once we have patients here they will be bringing water to the facility to ensure that we have adequate water supply…It will probably take a week to resolve those technical issues with the water,” he explained
An inspection on Saturday also found that the existing sewage system is condemned. As such, officials are working to install a new mechanism. On Sunday, different teams were busy, working on various facets of the facility to have it ready on time.
Speaking with the media, Director of Medical and Professional Services of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Dr Faucett Jeffrey informed that the first phase catered for a total of 97 beds. He said from the numbers at the Georgetown Hospital, they have already planned to transfer over 30 patients.
He noted that this would help to relieve GPHC, so that it could address the non-coronavirus sicknesses of the public. At present, he said the Hospital is ‘compressed’ to accommodate the COVID-19 patients.
“We will almost be occupying the area downstairs from east to west completely. The Georgetown Public Hospital has to continue its normal work also, because it’s not only COVID-19 that’s bothering us. The regular person who comes to the hospital [and] needs medical attention has to be attended to,” the Director noted.
As it relates to staffing, the Ministry has sent 17 doctors to GPHC, but Dr Jeffrey contended that the number of nurses remained a challenge. The Cuban medical brigade has also lent assistance.