Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Chair­man of the North Cen­tral Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NCRHA), Dr Tim Gopeesingh, says sev­er­al ma­jor up­grades are planned for hos­pi­tals un­der the au­thor­i­ty as part of ef­forts to im­prove con­di­tions for pa­tients, nurs­es and doc­tors.

Gopeesingh spoke to Guardian Me­dia on Wednes­day as the NCRHA be­gan in­stalling new re­frig­er­a­tors and mi­crowaves in the car­diac ward at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex (EWM­SC).

“We have brought 24 fridges and mi­crowaves and ket­tles to as­sist the nurs­es in their dai­ly du­ties and to make life a lot more com­fort­able and pleas­ing for them in their en­vi­ron­ment,” Gopeesingh said.

He said the au­thor­i­ty is al­so prepar­ing to re­fur­bish all 24 wards, with planned re­pairs to roofs, walls and floor­ing, along with the re­place­ment of bed­side pa­tient ta­bles.

Ac­cord­ing to Gopeesingh, 140 hos­pi­tal beds are al­so in need of re­place­ment, with about 20 new beds al­ready pur­chased. The NCRHA has ad­di­tion­al­ly ac­quired ap­prox­i­mate­ly 15 trol­leys and 50 wheel­chairs.

Oth­er planned up­grades in­clude the re­place­ment of eight el­e­va­tors and the ac­qui­si­tion of new equip­ment for op­er­at­ing the­atres and oth­er spe­cialised ser­vices.

Two op­er­at­ing the­atre ta­bles have al­ready been pur­chased, while three more are to be ac­quired. The au­thor­i­ty is al­so sourc­ing en­do­scop­ic equip­ment for gas­tro­scopies and colono­scopies, as well as equip­ment to sup­port la­paro­scop­ic surgery.

Gopeesingh said na­tion­al ten­ders will be is­sued for sev­er­al ad­di­tion­al projects in keep­ing with pro­cure­ment leg­is­la­tion.

These in­clude re­pairs and up­grades to the hos­pi­tal’s chiller sys­tem, re­place­ment of eight of its 19 lifts, air-con­di­tion­ing up­grades in the north­ern sec­tion of the hos­pi­tal and the ac­qui­si­tion of three X-ray ma­chines.

The NCRHA is al­so work­ing to en­sure its two CT scan­ners are ful­ly op­er­a­tional, while ad­di­tion­al equip­ment is be­ing pro­cured for op­er­at­ing the­atres.

Gopeesingh said the au­thor­i­ty re­cent­ly com­plet­ed work on an op­er­at­ing the­atre ta­ble for the car­diac catheter­i­sa­tion and an­giog­ra­phy room, where ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1,500 an­giograms are per­formed.

He said the up­grades form part of the NCRHA’s broad­er ef­forts to im­prove the hos­pi­tal en­vi­ron­ment and en­sure staff have the equip­ment and fa­cil­i­ties need­ed to pro­vide care to pa­tients.