Addressing questions about the staffing complement at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony said that while the country’s premier health institution is adequately staffed, it is expected that the Festival City Polyclinic would reduce its outpatient load.
Additionally, the Health Minister recently told the Parliamentary Committee of Supply that the construction of some six new regional hospitals will also ease the burden placed on the GPHC.
“As we improve the services at our regional hospitals we would be able to decant some of the services people would normally come for. We are hoping that less persons would come at the Georgetown Hospital,” he said.
He added that the government is repurposing the GPHC to address more specialized needs while the majority of its outpatient load would be directed to the Polyclinic.
“Last year the Festival City Polyclinic came into operation and this year we have allocated more monies to ensure that the Polyclinic is fully functional and that would include having diagnostic capability, laboratory capability and it would be able to house approximately 14 doctors and 2 dentists. That would take a lot of outpatients that come to Georgetown Hospital and they would be able to access services closer to where they live,” Dr Anthony said.
While he could not provide the doctor to patient, nurse to patient ratio Anthony said that the GPHC is adequately staffed with doctors but is short on the nurses’ front. He added that the government is addressing the nursing shortage.
Back in November last year, the Polyclinic was declared open with the Health Minister saying that it would offer all the services of a health centre along with additional diagnostic services, including labs, and X-Rays.
The clinic was incomplete when it was declared open. Anthony had said that rather than wait until every single thing is finished at the new building, it was important to have it open and build up the services as time goes by.
In excess of $300 million has been expended on the clinic that is aimed at offering preventative care and healthcare for patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension. The polyclinic also offers currently child healthcare, mental health care and adolescent home visits.
During his budget speech, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh had said that a total of $16.1 billion has been budgeted to launch a major expansion in public health care facilities, with $12.4 billion of that amount intended for the design and construction of a state-of-the-art paediatric and maternal hospital, upgrading of the West Demerara and Bartica regional hospitals, and the construction of six modern regional hospitals at Anna Regina, Tuschen, Diamond, Enmore, Bath and No. 75 Village, Corentyne.
Anthony told the Committee of Supply that the new regional hospitals would also contribute to the easing of the burden at the GPHC.
