K.H.M.H. makes improvements in emergency care
Nobody likes to hear about shootings, stabbings, and road accidents, but tonight potential victims of those violent incidents can take some comfort in the knowledge that the nation’s largest hospital is better able to tend to their wounds. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The institution has faced its share of criticism in the past for a variety of ills, but today the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital is in the news for improvements, not deficiencies. It now boasts a new enlarged trauma centre, which enables doctors and nurses to simultaneously administer emergency medical treatment to a larger number of patients. It’s a move that Chief Executive Officer of the K.H.M.H., Dr. Alvaro Rosado, says was long overdue.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado, C.E.O., K.H.M.H.
“It’s common knowledge that the hospital was not in the best of shape, so we had to do repairs. And then we recognized that in addition to repairs the space was inadequate. We had two rooms for trauma and the norm today is for four, five victims to come at any one time, so we decided to expand the trauma room. We’ve now enclosed another area, we’ve added seven more beds in order to better take care of accidents victims and other mass casualty victims.”
Marion Ali
“Will you have the human resources to accompany this new expanded unit?”
Dr. Rosado
“The human resources is already in place. They were there but they were working under very cramped conditions and it was very difficult for them to move around patients and that sort of thing. So the human resources are in place, it’s only the physical resources that was lacking.”
And with the physical resources now in place, Director of Medical Services at the K.H.M.H., Dr. Khalid Ghazi, believes that the motivation of the staff will also improve.
Dr. Khalid Ghazi, Director, Medical Services
“If you look at any place, if you have a beautiful, nice place to work with, it will definitely increase the morale. A lot other factors will increase the morale of the staff, but hopefully we can work it out one by one.”
And there are two more areas of the hospital that are being considered for expansion in 2008.
Dr. Rosado
“The expansion of the what is now called the Special Care Baby Unit, really the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where we are the only institution equipped to handle neonates, premature babies and that sort of thing. The capacity for that unit is now six, that’s what it should be, but there are times when we’re handling up to nineteen babies in the same area. So we are doing the same thing, expanding that hopefully to a capacity of twelve to fourteen cribs. We’re also hoping that we will be able renovate and expand the surgical ward, another area that the demand has outgrown the service that we can give. This of course results from the gunshot wounds, the traffic accidents, and the mass casualties that we’re having. I would hope that we can maintain the fees as they are. The private wards has been subsidising some of the work we do in the public ward and we hope that that will continue.”
Coupled with the more spacious room, patients should also see a new and improved attitude among the staff at the A and E section as they received certificates today having completed five days of training. That exercise in customer relations, conducted by Debbie Ewens, will be extended shortly to the entire hospital staff.
Following the ceremony, Ms. S.J.C. Melissa Coleman, was on hand to spread Christmas cheer by handing out gifts to all the children at the Pediatric Ward.
The total cost of the renovations at the Accidents and Emergency section, including the new trauma room, amounted to just over one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.
