New ward at KHMH to improve service
Everyday medical officials at the Accident and Emergency Ward at the Karl Heusner Memorial hospital do their best to save the lives of their patients. Tonight, News 5 reports on a new initiative that is designed to improve this crucial service.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
One of the most major medical services offered at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital is the care at Accident and Emergency but the department has become inundated with non urgent cases that have affected its proper management.
Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Director of Medical Services
?The vast majority of people accessing the emergency room are for non-urgent conditions, meaning that something that if not attended too quickly would not jeopardize their health or put them into risk, for death or anything of that sort.?
According to Director of Medical Services at the KHMH, Doctor Fernando Cuellar, for some time the hospital?s administrations had been contemplating a solution to the problem. Their answer? An additional clinic to provide the care.
Dr. Fernando Cuellar
?We?ve copied of course from international standards where there is the emergency room and close by we have non-urgent care be given. So we?ve kind of designed the area where a clinic is set aside for this non-urgent care where patients will be encouraged to access that instead of using the emergency room resources. This would allow us to better care for our emergency room clients.?
Jacqueline Woods
?I know over the weekend a lot of parents bring their children with upper-respiratory problems to Accident and Emergency. Will these children now be required to go to the non-emergency clinic??
Dr. Fernando Cuellar
?They will be asked to access that area; upper-respiratory diarrhoeas, minor pains, skin problems and things as you rightly said because of x, y and z reasons, they cannot access the other clinics during the week or normal working hours and so forth. Then we?ve accommodated this clinic for that purpose precisely.?
On Monday the clinic will be opened to the public seven days a week from eight a.m. to ten p.m. from Mondays to Fridays and from two p.m.to ten p.m.on Saturdays and Sundays. A fee of ten dollars will be charged for the service to cover the health care cost.
Dr. Fernando Cuellar
?We should be definitely get out of the idea that everything should be free. I think it?s very minimum of ten dollars and we hope the quality that comes with it is justified. It will be recommended or requested of the client. But again, the bottom line is we cannot turn back anybody. So if we want to call it a fee or a contribution, it?s basically a play with words. It?s basically to help us garner some more resources so that we can improve our services at the hospital overall.?
The non-urgent Clinic, an extension of the Accident and Emergency Department, can be accessed either through the A and E Ward or the main entrance of Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
