Pneumonia leading cause of children’s admissions at G/town Public Hospital last year

For 2024, the Pediatric Medicine Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) admitted 1,319 children, aged 29 days to under 13 years old, and found that pneumonia was the leading cause of illness with 370 cases.

This was followed by sickle cell disease and anemia at 172 cases; neurological conditions at 120, and blood cancers at 83.

Dr Sara Singh heads the Pediatrics Department at GPHC which is structured into four key areas. These are the Pediatric Medicine Ward, Pediatric Critical Care, the Outpatient Clinic, and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Dr. Singh shared some statistics recently at an end-of-year press conference at the hospital’s Resource Centre on New Market Street, Georgetown.

According to her, the Outpatient Clinic, which includes walk-in services as well as specialised follow up care clinics, saw 11,234 visits for 2024; 9,244 at the walk in clinic and 1,990 at the special clinics.

“These numbers reflect the trust that parents have placed in our pediatric team and attest to the quality of care that they receive at GPHC,” Singh commented.

In 2024, 194 pediatric patients were admitted across the Pediatric High Dependence Unit, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and the Adult ICU.

“Due to nurse staffing limitations, we still rely on the Adult ICU for the admissions of a number of cases,” Singh disclosed.

In 2025, she said her department aims to further reduce the backlog of pediatric cardiac interventions that are needed, along with enhancing pediatric hematologic cancer services.