The COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Infectious Disease Hospital at Liliendaal is fully operational, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony has announced.
As a result, all critical COVID-19 patients will now be monitored and isolated at the facility and this will allow for certain surgeries to recommence at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
Speaking with Sunday Stabroek yesterday, Anthony disclosed that all the COVID-19 ICU beds from the GPH have been transferred to the Infectious Disease Hospital as part of final arrangements to get the hospital functional, thereby allowing for critical COVID-19 patients to be monitored at the facility.
The minister stated that those staff members who were operating at the Georgetown Hospital’s COVID-19 ICU have been transferred to the Infectious Disease Hospital and will continue to perform their duties there.
Due to the hospital not having the necessary medical equipment to house critical COVID-19 patients, only persons with mild symptoms of the virus were being isolated and monitored at the Infectious Disease Hospital.
Anthony had previously said that there will be about 25 beds in the ICU with additional beds in the facility’s theatre and theatre recovery units. “So in total we will have about 29 beds in that whole area that will now be the new ICU,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Anthony explained that the full operation of the new ICU will allow for certain surgeries to resume at the GPHC. He noted that since March doctors at the GPHC were only performing emergency surgeries. He added that GPHC will soon issue a release of when scheduled surgeries will resume.
“I think that they have been restricting patients because COVID-19 had taken up quite a number of bed space so by decanting these patients over to Ocean View we will now be able to take in more of the regular patients at Georgetown Hospital,” he had stated in a previous report.
Following his appointment in August, Anthony had stated that the $1.6 billion infectious diseases hospital, a project initiated by the former APNU+AFC government, was a “shell” and in need of major work.
A total of $790 million was allocated in the 2020 National Budget for further works to be done on the hospital.
