One-stop rehab facility needed to centralise care for patients – Dr Anthony

In a bid to centralise the level of care being provided to persons who require rehabilitation services and are diagnosed with a chronic illness, the Guyana Government is mulling plans to establish a One Stop Rehab Facility.
The interest to construct a One Stop Rehab Facility in Guyana was signaled on Sunday by Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony during the Health Ministry’s 19th Rehab Week Celebration.

Rehabilitation therapy and treatment for chronic diseases are currently being conducted at different primary healthcare facilities across the country.
The health minister highlighted that a significant percentage of disabilities are caused by the adverse effects of illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension.
Dr Anthony believes that given the link between the two services it is best to have them being administered under one roof, which will eliminate the need for referrals and multiple follow-ups.
On this point, he explained that this move will allow the ministry to better monitor the various conditions and put better data management systems in place to properly cater for patients.
“I think that is something that we have to work on to make sure that our patients get improved services. So, over the next couple of months we’ll try to do that and hopefully when we come again here next year, we can say that we have implemented this service so that we can see improvement in how we manage our patients that have these chronic diseases,” Dr Anthony said.

Meanwhile, Director of Rehabilitation and Disabilities Services Dr Ariane Mangar disclosed that efforts to digitalise the Ministry’s Rehabilitation service will continue.
Among the interventions is a Patient Satisfaction App which will be launched in coming weeks to ramp up data collection efforts and provide a platform for citizens’ utilising the service to recommend strategies aimed at improving the quality of care from the comfort of their home.
“We’ll be able to gather from that real-time data to understand what is happening in the various departments throughout the country. And this will ultimately help us to improve the quality of service that we’re providing to our patients. We’ll also start piloting the rehab electronic medical record system at the Palms from next week,” Dr Mangar disclosed.
This year’s Rehab Week runs from June 23rd to 28th, and is being observed under the theme: “Transformative Triumphs: Celebrating the Transformative Triumphs and Successes that Individuals Achieve Through their Rehabilitation Journey”.
Rehab Week is geared at promoting the value and importance of rehabilitation and celebrate professionals involved in providing rehabilitation and disability services to those in need.
Guyana has over 50 physiotherapist, 12 speech therapists and 17 occupational therapists, among others.