The charitable organisation Guyana Medical Relief (GMR) has replaced the Accident & Emergency Unit of the Port Mourant Hospital with a spanking new facility.
A handing over ceremony was held last Thursday with the cutting of the ribbon and the unveiling of a plaque at the facility which was dedicated in honour of GMR’s founder, Eula Kennard-Menzies.
She also happened to be a resident of Port Mourant while her father was among the first doctors at the hospital. The GMR, a non-profit organisation based in Los Angeles, California, has spent some $4.5M on the project.
Sharir Chan, the Chief Operations Officer of the GMR, said he was happy to collaborate with the Berbice Regional Health Authority (BRHA) to make the project a reality.
His organisation was also willing to work with the staff providing “they do what is expected to make this a first class health care facility.”
Chan said the previous building was “over 100-years-old and we had to break the floor down so it can be at ground level.”
He said too that they “gutted and modernised the building by putting in tiled floors and modern sheet-rack walls and also modernised the doctors and nurses’ station. We reconfigured the whole structure and put in extra office space.”
Chief Executive Officer of the BRHA, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo said that with the efforts of the hospital’s administrator, Melissa Ramdeen, Dr. Vineshri Khirodar, the regional engineer and regional executive officer and contractors from the GMR, the building was transformed.
He said the ambulance would now be able to reverse into the building to pick up or drop off patients while there are spaces to set up an intensive care unit, proper triage and cubicles where several doctors can work.
According to him, doctors were working from rooms and that had limited their ability to manage several patients at the same time. “We would have learnt from chikungunya where you have several patients coming to the hospital at the same time.”
He said that was not the first time the BRHA was having engagements with the GMR and “we have been demanding more and more.” The organization had donated items including blood pressure apparatuses, pampers for the bed-ridden patients and disposable bed sheets.
He announced that the GMR, through Chan, has promised the BRHA a portable ultrasound machine for the new facility, 35 beds with mattresses for the Acute Care Centre at the National Psychiatric Hospital as well as defibrillators for the Port Mourant and other district hospitals.
Chan has also given a commitment to provide blood pressure machines, stethoscopes and glucometer strips to the Health & Wellness Army (H&WA) that was launched last year. The H&WA trains persons who are attached to 10 patients each.
Also speaking at the event were Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Regional Chairman of Region Six, David Armogan.
