Buxton Health Centre, Dr C.C. Nicholson Hospital to be developed… – hospital to offer round-the-cloc

guyana chronicle

THE Dr C.C. Nicholson Hospital, at Nabacalis, East Coast Demerara (ECD), will provide round-the-clock service while the Buxton Health Centre will offer additional services to meet the public health needs of an estimated 100,000 persons.This disclosure was made by Junior Minister of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings, yesterday, following an inspection of both health institutions, where she met and discussed with staffers areas which could be developed and issues affecting them . During the discussions pertaining to the Dr. C.C. Nicholson Hospital, Minister Cummings stated that it was time for action, as sitting around and doing nothing would not be wise, because there are obvious issues that need to be addressed immediately. Some of the major issues affecting the hospital include a shortage of auxiliary staff, which increases the workloads of doctors and nurses, when their time could be better occupied attending to patients. Additionally,doctors and nurses at the institution highlighted the problem of frequent power outages.These, they say, pose a problem when they occur because they are forced to discontinue their work and leave, especially if they occur at night. The minister assured the staff that this problem will be addressed as promptly as possible because in the event of patients needing medical attention, there will be no doctors available to attend to them. While the move to make the hospital operational around the clock is pending, there are facilities which need to be implemented first, such as an extra department, a phlebotomy department and so forth, which will be useful to the doctors in the sense that instead of referring patients to other hospitals for these services, they would be able to offer them at the same institution. BUXTON TO COMPLEMENT As they move to sort out problems at individual health institutions, Minister Cummings stated that some problems could be addressed by linking health centres within the area to each other; therefore, she noted that the Buxton Health Centre and the Enmore Health Centre will be complementing the Dr. C.C. Nicholson Hospital, in the sense that if one service is not available there, patients could be transferred to one of the health centres within the area,where the service is available. The Buxton Health Centre, the minister disclosed, has lots of space which they intend to use in order to install additional facilities such as a polyclinic which will offer urgent care, VIA services, an Ultra Sound Department, a Laboratory and Rehabilitation services among others. In order to make these a success, she urged members of the community to support them in these ventures, by forming a Public-Private Partnership, as the Buxton Diaspora has already been investing in the health centre for many years. Minister Cummings emphasised that these initiatives won’t happen overnight, but with positive thinking and efficient work progress will be seen as soon as possible, “most should be on stream early 2016.”