Lack of doctors, nurses forces relocation of Qatar mobile COVID hospital

The mobile COVID-19 hospital, which arrived in Guyana on Tuesday from the Government of Qatar, will now be installed in the compound of the Infectious Disease Hospital at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.

Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, during Wednesday’s COVID-19 update, revealed that while the hospital was initially slated to be installed at the West Demerara Regional Hospital in Region Three, it was subsequently discovered that there are not enough doctors and nurses there to run the hospital.

“Upon closer analysis of the amount of personnel that we have there [West Demerara Regional Hospital] to run the facility, it would be a challenge, both in terms of nursing personnel and in terms of doctors. So what we have decided, because we already have a lot of capacity in terms of personnel at Ocean View, that we think it might be more appropriate to set it up in the compound of the Ocean View facility,” Dr Anthony explained.

He said the Qatar hospital will significantly boost the COVID-19 response at Ocean View as it comes with 20 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds. There are 25 ICU beds at the Ocean View facility.

“We would be able to manage patients both critical and non-critical; 20 of the 60 beds would be ICU beds, it would have monitors and ventilators so that we would be able to manage more severe critical form of COVID-19,” the Health Minister said.

The hospital will be set up by local technical personnel with the guidance and instruction of experts from Qatar. The mobile unit arrived on a Boeing C-17 Globemaster jet from Qatar on Tuesday evening at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA). It comprises 60 beds, 60 mattresses, 12 air-conditioners, 60 pillows, 60 blankets, eight carpets, one generator, 20 respirators, 20,000 types of small and large medical equipment and one diesel tank.