Over 2600 accident victims, 98 sexual assault cases treated at GPHC in 2024

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) delivered care this year to over 60,000 patients, of which 14,100 were admitted and 7300 were referred.
Among these, 2,698 individuals required treatment for injuries sustained in motor vehicle collisions, highlighting the persistent dangers on the nation’s roadways.
During the hospital’s End of Year press conference on Monday, GPHC’s Head of the Accident and Emergency Department, Dr Zulfikar Bux revealed that patients injured in motor vehicle accidents accounted for five per cent of those treated throughout the year.

Additionally, GPHC provided care to 96 victims of sexual assault in 2024, reflecting a 14 per cent decrease compared to the previous year.
Dr Bux explained that GPHC’s patient statistics underscore the hospital’s growing demand for services and these numbers reflect the hospital’s position as a critical referral and treatment centre in Guyana.
“In terms of interpersonal violence, we’ve had a 15 per cent increase from 2023. We’re currently at 2,246 cases. This is the only emergency department in the country that has emergency specialist nurses, emergency specialist doctors, 24-7, 365”.
“In addition to doing all the level of care that we do at the Accident and Emergency Department, we support that pre-hospital response to ensure a lot of the intimate planning and having all of the teams that are on standby at the sites to ensure that if there are emergencies or any medical issues for Ramadan, trust me, there have been quite a lot of medical emergencies that have occurred during these events for the last year. Our team is there to start care and communicate with the specialists at the Emergency Department to ensure that we save those lives that need to be saved,” Dr Bux said.
GPHC, through its international partnerships and advanced training for health practitioners, with Northwell Health, and Operation Walk, among others, has reaped success in 2024.
In fact, the public hospital was able to successfully execute over 8,000 surgeries this year, with a total of 2216 elective surgeries executed, 169 joint replacement surgeries, 2207 general surgeries, 158 neurosurgical procedures, 274 paediatric surgeries, 16 renal transplants and 9 brain tumour surgeries, among others.
Meanwhile, the Ophthalmology Department conducted 2933 electives surgeries between January and November this year.
Despite these demands, Dr Bux said GPHC has not increased its staffing complement or bed capacity, leaving its 18 available beds to accommodate thousands of patients annually.
“We have not increased our bed capacity. So, we’ve managed to do what we were doing in 2020, about 37,000 patients, we’re now at 60,000 patients, with not much in terms of improving our staff capacity or improving our space capacity. But at the same time, we basically improve our efficiency and effect on the medicine care”.
“So that shows the commitment and the hard work that the team at the emergency department they’re doing. I must commend them because I think as a head of department they will tell you I probably juice them out as much as I can and I do see that if the numbers continue as they’ve been doing over the years, I am very concerned for 2025-2026 because we will have to look at space, we will have to look at how we improve our morale in the department and of course improve the increase in numbers of staff that we have,” he added.
Further, Dr Bux explained average waiting time at GPHC for emergency cases stands at 58 minutes, with patients typically receiving four hours of service care. These figures highlight the strain on staff and resources as they work tirelessly to meet the needs of the population. (G1)