On Saturday, a team of about 40 personnel in the field of Orthopaedics from across the country gathered at the New Amsterdam Hospital for an Orthopedic Retreat.
The meeting was jointly organised by the Georgetown Public Hospital Cooperation (GPHC) and New Amsterdam Public Hospital, the Department of Public Information (DPI) said.
According to Dr. Fawcett Jeffrey, Orthopaedic surgeon and consultant in the Department of Orthopaedics at the GPHC, the retreats which began in 2011 are usually held at the Project Dawn healthcare centre at Liliendaal on the East Coast of Demerara. However, they have not been able to host the event annually with the last one held in 2016 at the GPHC. The Orthopaedic surgeon said the retreat plays a vital role in the field and pledged to continue to lobby for it to be held annually.
Dr. Jeffrey said that the orthopaedic department at any facility is among the most expensive to operate and maintain due to the high costs attached to equipment and supplies. He is therefore calling on the economists at the various facilities to look into the use of fibreglass instead of Plaster of Paris in the construction of casts.
“When you look at the cost of a roll of fibreglass you can probably get three roles of Plaster of Paris but when you look at the application it takes one roll of Fiberglass to three rolls of Plaster of Paris so that balances itself out. However, if the Plaster of Paris gets wet it gets broken and damaged and it has to be replaced while the fibreglass remains intact, further I have seen many instances where plaster of Paris casts are replaced sometimes three times in an eight week period so it becomes much more expensive”, he told DPI.
