Multimillion-dollar digital X-ray systems installed at Region 6 hospitals

The Mibicuri Hospital, New Amsterdam Hospital and Port Mourant Hospital in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) on Thursday commissioned new digital X-ray units, thereby advancing the quality of images taken and easing the ability to send them across healthcare centres for interpretation.
The new system at Mibicuri Hospital is valued at $44 million, with an additional $36 million being spent on civil works for the preparation of the site.
The X-ray images will be stored on an electronic database which will allow medical practitioners to access patient records at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), the country’s main referral hospital, or any other health facility which utilises the same machine.
With digital imaging, radiation is minimal and the X-ray image can be seen from different perspectives.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has said that this is one of several substantial changes the hospital has seen in recent years, with more infrastructure projects expected to come in the near future.
“We have expanded the area for the doctor’s office where they will see patients and those are substantial risk factors, we have added a waiting area essentially during the time of COVID-19 because we didn’t want people to be close to each other and we felt that the waiting area outside was appropriate, we also extended the wards of the hospital,” Anthony said.

At Port Mourant Hospital’s Imaging and Diagnostic Unit, the Minister noted that close to $60 million has been spent to develop the unit, as the Ministry engages in replacing all analogue X-ray machines with digital ones.
“The region in preparation for this X-ray unit spent approximately $16 million in fixing the electricity to make sure that the facility would be of the standards so that we can install the instrument,” Anthony explained.
“Then from the Ministry side, we spent $44 million to buy the equipment, the power distribution unit and to also put in the power pack to make sure that if there’s any fluctuation, that it would not affect the unit,” Anthony said.
Regional Chairman David Armogan noted that even with the upgrading of equipment and health facilities across the region, there is still room for improvement in service delivery.
With this, he added that the regional budget was designed to train medical staff as well as consider provisions to deliver better healthcare to the poor and needy.
Meanwhile, at the New Amsterdam Hospital, some $57 million was spent on procuring the digital X-ray machine and constructing the X-ray room in efforts to ensure Berbice residents benefit from faster X-ray services.

EMR
During this commissioning ceremony, Dr Anthony explained that patients will also see the initiation of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system soon whereby their medical history and other key information will be stored in a database that can be accessed by medical professionals at any public health facility that they seek care and treatment from in Guyana.
“In another two weeks, you will see that we are putting out a call for a company to come into Guyana and offer us a solution for how we should computerise our patients’ records. Every patient that comes to the public health system will have a unique identifier and wherever they go they will have a record in the system,” Anthony said.
“So, if you are a patient at New Amsterdam Hospital and decide to go to Georgetown Hospital, they will be able to pull up your records and see everything about you medically that is in your records and this is going to help us to be more efficient at how we are managing how patient,” Anthony added.
This system is already being implemented at GPHC as they were rolling out the usage of digitised patient records in its Internal Medicine Medical Clinic in July.
While at the New Amsterdam Hospital, the Health Minister also conducted a walk-through of the Neonatal Department, to ensure that the services being offered are up to the standards set by the Health Ministry.
Among those present at the commissioning ceremonies were Regional Health Officer, Dr Vishalya Sharma; and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, Dr Bob Ramnauth. (G13)