Authorities reviewing protocols after flood damages hospital records

The Leonora Hospital, that was temporarily closed after the bottom flat flooded, is expected to reopen on Thursday, March 8.

Late Thursday evening into early Friday morning, above normal high tides, the worst in decades, overtopped the seawall along West Coast Demerara. It continued into the weekend.

This resulted in severe flooding in several communities. One of the hardest hit facilities was the Leonora Diagnostic and Treatment Centre.

This hospital’s ground floor was inundated with approximately 14 inches of water. As a result, the centre was ordered to close temporarily by senior public health officials to facilitate its clean-up. Updating the Department of Public Information (DPI) on the process, to restore the diagnostic centre to a level of functionality, Assistant Administrator, Kathleen Armstrong said: “Presently we are in the mopping up exercise. Even though the Guyana Fire Service would have initially done some work, we still have to continue by wiping, doing our floors, sanitising and all the other aspects of the mopping up exercise.”

There were volunteers from several core groups and hospital staff actively involved in preparing the health facility to be re-opened.

“There are still some areas where we have the thick mud and thanks to one of our contractors he is bringing a power-hose, so we are going to be hosing out especially the pharmacy and the health centre. Those were the hardest hit,” Armstrong explained. Ministry of Public Health’s Permanent Secretary, Colette Adams, along with the Regional Health Officer (RHO) of Region Three, Ravindra Dudnauth, took the opportunity at this juncture to examine the ongoing progress.

Permanent Secretary Adams during her walk through the facility noted that many records were damaged after coming into contact with floodwaters.

“We need to (if possible) look back at protocols and legislation concerning record keeping at hospitals and move to have this system to be computerised. We have had too many losses here,” she noted.

Adams added that the Ministry of Public Health will immediately provide a fridge for the storage of vaccines at the Leonora health facility.

In the interim, while this hospital was closed two other facilities- the Mildred Cox-Younge Health Centre at Den Amstel and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) dispensary at the Uitvlugt Community Centre have been opened on a 24hr basis, functioning as community hospitals.

RHO Dudhnauth indicated that since these facilities were tasked to operate for 24 hours since Friday, March 2, there has been no serious flood-related illness. However, he encouraged residents in affected communities to take the necessary precautions and safeguard their health and well-being.

(Kaieteur News)