and the inadequate staff.However
| There continues to be reports of alleged malpractices at the Georgetown Public Hospital’s Medical Outpatient Department.However, staffers at the department said that they feel they should be commended for the job they are doing.Among some of the complaints are the long period for which they are made to wait before seeing a doctor, the over crowded area, and the inadequate staff.However, on a recent visit to the department there seem to be a smooth flow in operations there. To begin with, there are three doctors and four nurses operating in the department which is deemed adequate enough to run the department. On the other hand, staffers at the department had their bit to share.One said that the department is overwhelmed by the number of patients they attend to on a daily basis but they do manage.Every day the department treats close to 200 patients and occasionally makes no less than 25 referrals. The reason for the overwhelming number of patients at the outpatients department, according to the staff members, is the poorly functioning community health centres.Patients come from far flung areas including Linden, Berbice and the Essequibo Coast.One nurse said that if people visit the community health centre or clinic then the work load at the Outpatient department would be much easier.According to the nurse, when they question patients as to why they decided to travel such long distances to be seen by a doctor they would respond by saying that the health centre in the community does not provide the service they might require.It was pointed out that a simple service as dressing for infected wounds, in most cases, is not provided by some community health centers.“These health centers are supposed to visit the public hospital to uplift material for dressing and some do not do such, thus leaving patients to overwhelm the Outpatient department,” the nurse said.This was very much evident when this newspaper made a visit to the department yesterday.Within a five-minute period there were no less than three persons who came from communities that have health centres, who were at the department waiting for their wounds to be dressed.In addition, this newspaper was informed that the department deals with almost every medical complaint. In these cases, if a referral is necessary then that patient is referred to the respective clinic that deals with that complain.If an emergency case is detected and the patient might not be aware of this, that patient is immediately sent to the hospital’s emergency room.One nurse said that the patients who frequent the Outpatient department should be thankful for the services that are available to them since they are free of cost.The Medical Outpatient building was destroyed by fire last August and has since been relocated below the Genito Urinary Medical clinic building, offering a service from 7:00 hours to 16:00 hours daily, except for Sundays. |
