Dr. Balwant Singh’s Hospital has boosted its laboratory facilities with the addition of two state-of-the-art medical analyzers equipped to test for several infectious diseases.
The Cobas c 311 Chemistry Analyzer and the Cobas e 411 Immunology Analyzer, which are a part of the Cobas 4000 series manufactured by Roche Diagnostics Ltd, of Switzerland, would allow the hospital to test for diseases at a cheaper cost and with faster turnaround time compared to other private labs in Guyana.
Both analyzers are the only ones of their kind in Guyana currently. It was also noted that the Cobas 4000 series is the first to be installed by Roche in the Caribbean.
At the launch yesterday, hospital administrator Dr Madhu Singh noted that after a year of preparation, the machines were finally added to the hospital at a cost of US$180,000.
They will allow the hospital to do Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) testing, Homocysteine and D-Dimer testing as well as Enzyme-linked immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) testing for infectious diseases, such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) and Toxoplasma.
“These [analyzers] are very capable of giving very rapid and reliable results. As we know in making a diagnosis and commencing treatment, time is of the essence but so is reliability,” Dr Singh said.
It was noted that a lot of the tests that the hospital will be offering as a result of the introduction of the analyzers previously had to be sourced overseas. “We look forward to easing the burden of Guyanese patients by providing the tests at a much cheaper cost in a shorter time,” she said.
Singh indicated that the fee for testing is significantly cheaper than what is available at other private labs in Guyana. She added that the turnaround time for tests would also be reduced significantly, raising the bar for labs in Guyana.
Minister of Health Dr George Norton, who was present for the launch, commended the private hospital for taking medical laboratory testing to another level in Guyana.
“These equipment, I can imagine, cost a lot of money, but we know that with quality comes expense. When we are in a situation where we have certain set goals that we want to achieve and we are working towards that on an international framework we must do everything that is possible to have these tests available to the public,” the minister explained.
He further noted that it is a fact that the private/public partnership is one way of reducing the costs for the patients. “The Balwant Singh Hospital has shown us that they are moving from one level to another level. And the services that we might have not have had access to in the entire country before are now available here and we can only commend them for that,” he added.
Medical technologists at the private medical institution also had their part to play in the introduction of the machines as they underwent a two-week training stint in order to be properly equipped to use the analyzers.
Training was done by a representative of Roche Diagnostics Claudia Gossai, who expressed her confidence in the technologists’ ability to use the machines.
