Almost 100 patients have passed through Guyana’s COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) since the beginning of the pandemic in Guyana.
This was disclosed to Stabroek News by Communications Manager at the hospital, Chelauna Providence, who stated that as of Thursday, 98 persons have been treated at the ICU which was set up following the COVID-19 outbreak in Guyana in March.
Providence said that 85 of those persons required critical care while admitted to the unit, adding that the unit which has been equipped with 14 beds has only had that amount of patients in at one time on Wednesday. According to the Ministry of Health, 14 persons remain at the ICU as of Thursday. “Yesterday [Wednesday] is the fullest our ICU has ever been.”
The communications manager informed that as it relates to the management of the situation at the hospital, more specifically the ICU, they have had a higher than usual number of persons admitted to the unit. She explained that the higher number is something that has occurred only recently as previously the ICU would have had a significantly lower number of patients. “This is something that has happened only recently because in the couple of weeks before, we would have like five or three even eight persons.”
Even with that she said that fortunately, they have not had any situation where there are more patients than ICU beds at the hospital. As the Centre for Infectious Disease facility at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara is now in use, she noted that they are now able to move patients from the transition unit who do not require critical care, to that facility. Providence said that some maternity patients and transition patients have already been moved to the Liliendaal facility. “I think we can begin to look at how we can possibly focus our efforts on our critical care patients.”
