Health care workers attached to the Palms Geriatric Home recently underwent more training on effectively performing their duties while continuing to ensure safeguards remain in place against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The training was facilitated by the Ministry of Public Health and another session that will focus on Infection, Prevention and Control practices is scheduled for this week.
In a video posted on the ministry’s Facebook page last week, Clinical and Regional Programme Officer Caroline Hicks explained that the aim of the training is to equip the health care workers in their fight against COVID-19 while at the same time preparing them for any similar outbreak in the future.
“…When we finish with them, they will be well rounded. We don’t want to only train now but we want this to be an ongoing thing so in the event that COVID gone and something else come, they must be always equipped and will understand how they should practice,” Hicks said.
The training, according to Hicks, is expected to touch on areas such as how health care workers should apply their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the use of masks and caring for those they attend to on a daily basis.
“We are going to conduct training on how the health care workers should… put on their PPE and how they should take them off safely so that they would not be infected. The way how they should care for these residents, how they should use masks and how they should also allow persons to wear masks at times because our elderly persons may not be so au fait with using their masks but the staff should at all times approach them with masks,” Hicks explained.
The Palms Geriatric Home has since recorded a total of twelve COVID-19 cases, including a staff member. The first patient died.
Whentworth Tanner, Director of Social Services, had previously told this newspaper that given the outbreak of the virus at the home, the Palms is in continuous contact with the Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) as they work to combat the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with this newspaper, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) representative to Guyana Dr. William Adu-Krow had said that more needs to be done as it relates to screening and testing at elderly homes and, in particular, the Palms.
He had noted that doctors were sent to provide aid to the home.
“The fact that they are elderly and the fact that they are together in small spaces, it’s a big negative, so we need to look at that seriously,” he said while stating his intention to speak with the National COVID-19 Task Force about taking a serious look at the home.
The PAHO representative had also said that there is a need to guard against having more positive cases at the home.
