Two East Coast health centres help ease GPHC patient wait
DPI, Guyana, Friday, June 29, 2018
Two East Coast of Demerara health facilities are helping to reduce the overwhelming number of patients visiting the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Patients can stop in at the Enterprise Health Centre for ultrasound services on Fridays while those needing echocardiogram services can go to the Dr. CC Nicholson Hospital in Nabacalis. These services are available free to the public. This is in addition to the usual services already being offered at the community level. Together, these two facilities cater for thousands of East Coast residents.
The Enterprise Health Centre also offers phlebotomy services on Thursdays in addition to having an outpatient clinic, chronic diseases clinic, maternal and child health, an ante-natal service, dressing for wounds, dental services and a newly introduced teenagers clinic.
Staff of the health centre also extend visitation services to the community and health education to schools. Doctor in Charge at this Health Centre, Dr. Nicole Harris-Linton said she embraces the fact that the health centre is adequately equipped to provide a wide range of services.
As a result of this, she adds that persons have more confidence in health services provided. “We have a good patient-doctor, patient-nurse relationship so patients see the Enterprise Health Centre as a family.” The centre’s catchment area is between the Enterprise village to Paradise village with approximately 5,000 residents.
Meanwhile, Dr. CC Nicholson Hospital has re-introduced echocardiogram services and acting Medical Superintendent (MS), Dr. Chrissundra Abdool has reported that many persons are taking advantage of it. “It was a much-needed service so obviously we would have an influx of person not only from the immediate community but from the other health centres along the East Coast corridor sending their patients here.”
Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence recently visited the health centre and the hospital to see the operations and, while talking to patients, she assured that there is more in store as primary health care in all regions is targeted for an upgrade which will ease the burden of patient overload at the GPHC. “Persons no longer have to go to Georgetown hospital to be serviced. Therefore, we are easing the large number of persons going there so those doctors can now focus on the more critical patients that they may have.”
By: Delicia Haynes.
Images: Karime Peters.