‘New COVID-19 hospital cannot be used as is’ – Min. Anthony
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, August 6, 2020
The COVID-19 hospital which was commissioned a week ago under the previous administration has been determined to be unable to readily cater to complex COVID-19 cases.
This is according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony who said for certain parts of the hospital to be operational major renovations would have to be done.
More specifically, the area designated for an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is not properly equipped our refurbished to specification.
“One of the basic requirements of an ICU is to ensure that you have centralised oxygen, suction and those types of things. The idea is to ensure that these things are put into the wall during construction and you will have outlets from the wall. That wasn’t done so we have to refurbish this place and put in all the essentials that are required for a proper ICU.”
For this critical service to be in place, Dr. Anthony noted that “we would probably have to break those walls to install these kinds of pipes and outlets and so forth so it’s a lot of money I would imagine to renovate.” he said
Added to this, the space for the ICU has capacity for 20 adult beds and another section for ten pediatric beds, however, these beds are not in place. The Minister said a technical team has been commissioned to look at what is essentially needed to have the hospital operational.
“We have spent $1.6B and you have a building with no equipment, no bed and the building is supposed to house 197 beds. So, if you’re going to treat severe COVID complications, you will need ventilators and a lot of other things but nothing is there.”
On Thursday, July 30, 2020, the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control was commissioned. This facility is housed in what was is formerly the Ocean View International Hotel but has been set aside to specifically treat and contain infectious diseases in Guyana.