National ambulance authority, telemedicine centre earmarked for Oceanview Hospital

Minister of Health Frank Anthony on Friday noted that the Government is working towards the establishment of a national ambulance authority that will be stationed at the Oceanview Hospital and will oversee the co-ordination to cover emergency dispatch via land, sea and air. The Government is also considering placing a central telemedicine centre at the Oceanview facility. Minister Anthony spoke about these and other future Government health care plans as he delivered remarks at the sod turning ceremony for the new Industry Polyclinic on the East Coast Demerara (ECD).

“We’ve been working to retrofit the COVID hospital. There is a section of that hospital that we are now working to make it into the centre for a national ambulance authority and from there you can have ambulances being dispatched – whether it is [an] ambulance on land or in river – and we are working also to be able to call for aeroplanes that can go out and do medevac. You will have a full command centre,” Dr Anthony shared.
“We will also have our telemedicine centre connected there, because right now we have 81 locations where we’re at, and in another couple of years that will be increased to 200 interior locations. So when we get called, the people who will be manning that centre will be able to talk to the people on the ground and determine if it’s a medical emergency or not, and if it’s a medical emergency they will be able to trigger a response where they can send in a plane to pick up that person. And if it’s not an emergency they will be able to offer guidance on how to manage that patient.”
Dr Anthony noted that the Ministry of Health also continues to work towards improving the use of drones in health care delivery to remote locations. Earlier this year Dr Anthony had explained that the Ministry had begun testing out the abilities of drones to deliver lifesaving medical needs such as medication and even blood.
“If we need specialised meds to go to a site, we will be able to fly it to that site so that persons can have access. We’ve tested one of the drones. It can fly for 150-km (kilometres), so that is something in the near future we will be putting to use. The cargo hold for the drone is 22lbs so it can take a lot of things,” he said.