New lab for Kato Cottage Hospital
─ making services more accessible to North Pakaraimas residents
─ as Reg. 8 RHO envisions comprehensive health service delivery
DPI, Guyana, Monday, August 5, 2019
Laboratory services in Region 8, Potaro-Siparuni are soon to be more accessible to residents as plans are on stream to establish a laboratory at the Kato Cottage Hospital.
This is according to Regional Health Officer (RHO), Dr. Chrissundra Abdool, who envisions quality health services being made available for all persons in the region. She noted that there is a need to expand the services beyond the township of Mahdia.
“We are planning to establish a lab in the Kato community that is over in the North Pakaraimas so that will also help us improve our laboratory services so instead of now having samples coming to Mahdia those samples can be read off right there in the North Pakaraimas.”
This much-needed service will be critical, especially to the pregnant women living in the district. “It’s a service that the people in the North Pakaraimas need especially our mothers-to-be, so they would need to get tested ever so often.”
Regional Health Officer (RHO), Potaro-Siparuni, Region 8, Dr. Chrissundra Abdool
Dr. Abdool explained that this lab is expected to become a reality in 2020. The process for transporting blood and other samples to Mahdia or Georgetown usually several days, which can affect the efficiency and accuracy of the test results.
“When sending labs [samples] out it takes a few days but not only that, you have a few hiccups and we need to remember these are blood samples so they are only viable for a certain amount of time and in addition to that we have to be very careful about how they are being transported,” the RHO explained.
Currently, there are laboratory services available at the Mahdia district hospital on a 24-hour basis, with plans to further upgrade the facility. For 2019, a biochemistry analyser and a haematology analyser were purchased. The hospital has also acquired a dental unit for improved dental service. There are plans for the acquisition of more dental units which will be placed at Mahdia, Kato and other health centres in the region.
Ophthalmology services are also being planned. Dr. Abdool said “we are trying to establish these things to widen our services offered so that the people can have as much access in Region 8 [similar to that in] Region 4.”