Public hospitals to return to planned surgeries

Public hospitals are preparing their surgical wards to complete surgeries which were put on hold since March 2020 when Guyana confirmed its first COVID-19 case.

Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony in Monday’s COVID-19 update released by the Department of Public Information (DPI), said efforts are being made to return the public health sector to some normalcy.

“We’re working on a plan; so during this month, we will return to planned surgeries for all of our hospitals including the Georgetown Public Hospital.

“So you can imagine if we weren’t doing planned surgeries since March, that there would be an extensive backlog and so in discussions with the [Regional Health Officers] RHOs and some of the persons directly in charge of these departments, we’re trying to figure out ways and means of how we can clear some of this backlog of cases,” Dr. Anthony said.

He pointed out that all of the necessary precautions will be observed to ensure that the patients and health care professionals are protected from COVID-19.

Guyana confirmed its first COVID-19 case on March 11 and that has risen to 4,238 to date. However, under 1,000 of those cases are currently active with the majority on home isolation.

Meanwhile, the Minister said efforts are also being made to deal with the shortage of drugs at the regional hospitals.

“During this week, we will be sending out a number of medications to the regions so hopefully, they will satisfy the demand that they currently have and we intend to stabilise the process that we will have adequate supplies on a continuous basis,” Dr. Anthony said.

He noted that this will allow more citizens to come to the hospitals and access services with the COVID-19 guidelines in place.

The Government in its 2020 emergency budget allocated millions of dollars to purchase drugs which were found to be short at the regional hospitals.