online conference

nice6boyt7

– “Things are happening at GPHC,” Minister of Health confidently assertsIn just a matter of weeks, 15 children are scheduled to undergo heart surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), under a new initiative which promises to improve the effectiveness of hospital staff.From L-R Min. of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, Mr. Roy Morris (ICHF), Dr. Helen Holtby, GPHC CEO Michael Khan, Dr. Sheik Amir and Dr. Nancy Suarez at media conference yesterday.Representatives of the International Children’s Heart Foundation (ICHF) will officially begin training hospital staff for a two week period, beginning April 25 of this year.At a press conference held yesterday at GPHC, a panel led by Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, informed the media of the improvements being made in the health sector.The panel, which consisted of the Minister; GPHC’s Chief Executive Officer,  Michael Khan; Cuban Pathologist, Dr. Nancy de las Mercedes Sitchao Suarez; Canadian Anaesthesiologist, Dr. Helen Holtby of Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, and Biomedical Engineer, Mr. Roy Morris of ICHF, explained their plans to put measures in place to undertake surgeries.Ramsaran said that a team of specialists from the ICHF will soon be coming to Guyana to review its capacity and equipment, and train hospital staff in the necessary expertise of caring for children with Congenital Heart Disease. He further stated that machines valued at millions of dollars have been procured and that “small things can make a big impact, so that the hospital can go from strength to strength”.Morris, who has 21 years of experience working in this field, said that while working in the Dominican Republic, he met some Guyanese children, all of whom suffered from congenital heart defects, and he immediately fell in love with them. He decided that he, along with members of his organization, would come to Guyana to share their knowledge and expertise in the area.Morris told members of the media that one out of every 100 children will be born with the disease, and will have to do surgery at some point of their lives. He discussed the obvious issues which can arise in these cases, such as the lack of finances to perform surgery overseas, the hassle of travelling to foreign countries to receive medical attention, and the fact that in most cases, all important family members cannot be involved.He went on to explain that the objective is to train GPHC staff to be able to deal with the medical aspects of treating those children who are affected, so as to cancel out these issues. He added that the children would benefit from being treated in a familiar environment, surrounded by family members.Dr. Holtby, who has been with the foundation for the past 10 years, explained that part of the initiative is to increase the effectiveness of GPHC staff. She added that Paediatric Cardiac Surgery is very complex, even for the most skilled of surgeons, and as such, much care and effort is going into educating those involved. Dr. Holtby will be working side by side with the anaesthesiologists at the hospital.Training in anaesthesiology began on Tuesday last at the GPHC, and a webinar (online conference) is scheduled to take place every Wednesday at 15:00 hours to provide training in other areas.The plan, Morris said, is to make regular trips to Guyana after training has been completed in order to ensure that things are up to standard.“Our job is to create a sustainable programme…teaching GPHC staff how to use equipment and care for the children…We (ICHF) want to be able to make ourselves obsolete, since the idea is to give Guyanese the necessary skills to ensure that they are competent enough to care for their own. We will then move on to another country, and hopefully the training that was carried out here will be imparted on other persons so as to achieve sustainability.”Morris said that the ultimate goal for the future is to ensure that not just Guyana, but the entire Caribbean region benefits from this initiative.