‘COVID’ hospital equipped to provide dialysis, treat other diseases

The Ministry of Health has expanded the range of the National Infectious Diseases hospital at Liliendaal, Georgetown to offer treatment for common comorbidities seen in severe COVID-19 patients.

“If a patient needs dialysis, we can offer it at the facility. If a patient needs emergency surgery, we have an operating theatre there…for emergency cesarean section, we can do that and of course with all the other underlying illnesses, we have the capability to treat those as well,” Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony revealed during his COVID-19 update on Monday.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), comorbidity refers to the presence of one or more additional diseases or disorders.

And it has been proven that COVID-19 patients with a history of hypertension, obesity, chronic lung disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease have a worsened prognosis.

The Ministry of Health has been working to also improve the capacity of the COVID hospital to treat the deadly virus with a new oxygen pipeline system installed. This, the minister explained, would see every patient getting a direct supply of oxygen at their beds through pipes, eliminating the need for heavy oxygen tanks.

“We have about 195 beds at the Ocean View Hospital and most of them now would have their individualized oxygen off the wall outlet, and when you compare that with what we had, this is a great improvement,” the Health Minister added.

That system will also be boosted when the oxygen plant, valued at about US$150,000 (or GY $31 million) is installed.

This specific plant is expected to produce about 800 litres of oxygen per minute by capturing air, absorbing the unwanted nitrogen, and filtering out the oxygen for use. The 800 litres of oxygen would be able to supply about 50 patients with about 16 litres of oxygen each, every minute.

On average, the hospital treats about 120 patients and in some instances, there are about 30 to 35 patients receiving care in the ICU. And, about 15 litres of oxygen are used to treat them.

Currently, Guyana has 11,610 active COVID-19 cases across the country with 133 persons hospitalised. Of that number, 88 are housed at the COVID hospital.

Guyana’s vaccination numbers as of Monday are as follows:

ADULTS:

423,439 first dose (82.5 per cent)

312,874 second dose (61 per cent)

CHILDREN AGED 12-17:

32,580 first dose (44.7 per cent)

22,971 second dose (31.5 per cent)

BOOSTER:

38,916 doses