West Demerara Hospital continues to offer 24-hour service - RHO insists

By virtue of being a regional hospital, the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) is mandated to offer secondary level care to patients on a 24hour basis. However, there are reports that suggest that the Region Three Hospital may be veering off course when it comes to its designated mandate.

There have been reports reaching this publication that the hospital usually closes its gates to the public by a certain time at night, thus causing a number of patients to seek care at alternative health facilities. In addition, reports suggest that by virtue of the hospital being closed, some doctors scheduled to work at the hospital instead render their services at the country’s tertiary institution – the

Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

The complaints about the regional hospital come at a time when the Ministry of Public Health is pushing primary health care nationally. Given the gravity of the purported situation, this publication decided to seek answers from Regional Health Officer, Dr. Cerdel McWatt. In commenting, Dr. McWatt called reports of the hospital being closed to the public by a certain time “malicious”, and went on to proclaim that:“I don’t know where the claim is coming from that we don’t provide 24hour services. We have our on-call rosters, and an observer can also clarify that yes, we do have services offered on a 24hour basis.” When asked of the possibility of rostered doctors offering their services at the GPHC, Dr. McWatt admitted: “There might be isolated cases where doctors may do overtime at GPHC, but I can’t think of none presently.” He further explained “…as far as I am concerned, our doctors here, whenever being rostered, do have an on-call facility – a building in which they are forced to remain within the confines of the hospital to attend to patients.”

Insisting that the hospital’s gates are opened to the public on a 24hour basis, Dr. McWatt made it pellucid that regardless of the time of day, patients can seek the services at the West Demerara Hospital.

The hospital has in place a ‘round the clock’ emergency department which offers services promptly to patients in need, Dr. McWatt insisted. “It can be 10:30pm, 1am or 1:30am we are always opened,” Dr. McWatt assured, adding that “In addition to West Dem Hospital, the Leonora Cottage Hospital [also in Region Three] functions on a 24hour basis, and patients can visit there; it doesn’t matter the time, the options are wide in terms of what can be acquired.”

In fact, the RHO revealed that within Health Services Region Three, the two facilities [West Demerara Regional and Leonora Cottage] offer level three and level four health care which translate to secondary health care.

(Kaieteur News)