Public urged to use GPHC Complaints Office on issues of service delivery

Members of the general public are being urged to use the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC’s) Complaints Office if they are aggrieved about the quality of service they have received. This call was issued by Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.
This Complaints Office, located next to the entrance of the GPHC’s New Market Street Complex, is tasked with investigating all complaints lodged by citizens. It is overseen by the Patient Complaints Committee, chaired by the GPHC’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, and has among its members the Director of Medical & Professional Services, Quality Improvement Manager, and the Public Relations Officer.
After complaints have been investigated, recommendations are made to resolve them, and deficiencies are eradicated to prevent their recurrence in the future.
Dr Ramsammy has declared that the Health Ministry takes patient feedback very seriously; therefore, all matters are dealt with promptly and comprehensively.
“We also have a national hotline that is staffed, that people can call us (on) and tell us (their complaints), and we immediately respond. And so, we are working with the health sector, because I am disappointed – as well as the President, as well as the Minister – that sometimes our health workers are tone deaf, they’re not hearing, and so I believe that we need to do more,” Dr. Ramsammy has said.
Dr Ramsammy added that while efforts are ongoing to improve services at the Georgetown Public Hospital, citizens should utilise the Complaints’ Office if they encounter any bad experience. He is optimistic that doing so would play a pivotal role in preventing issues between patients and medical staff from escalating.
“If we make the health sector a more accommodating place, a more friendly place, um, where it is people-centred, you will find that suddenly people are focusing on improvement,” the Health Advisor explained.

Training
Under guidance of the Peoples Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) Administration, Guyana has fostered many international partnerships and facilitated advanced training for health practitioners. Scores of doctors are currently completing fellowships aboard with Mount Sinai Health System, McMaster University, and Northwell Health, by which they have been provided opportunities to learn new clinical skills and understand how international institutions function, so Guyana can adopt new medical techniques and best practices.
As a result, doctors of the GPHC were able to successfully perform some 12,495 surgeries in 2023. A total of 876 of these surgeries were elective, 587 were minor, 845 were emergency, and 56 were for hernias. Procedures ranged from complex spine, plastic, vaginal, skin, neurological, ligament reconstruction and joint replacement surgeries.
Further, in an effort to enhance nursing education and make it accessible to everyone across the length and breadth of the nation, the Health Ministry, through the Health Sciences Education (HSE) Department, launched the hybrid professional nursing training programme in 2023 in a collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). Some 1200 persons who are engaged in this three-year nursing programme will be provided with employment opportunities by the Health Ministry upon their completion of the programme.
This is part of the efforts to address the shortage of nurses in the country.