surpassing the total eight recorded in 2024. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPHC, Robbie Rambarran, revealed that the majority of these deaths occurred among critical patients who were transferred from private hospitals at the last moment. Speaking to reporters, Rambarran explained that most of the women who died were never under GPHC’s care until they were referred in extremely critical condition. “From January to now, I recall we have nine deaths, it’s an increase from last year. The thing is that we have more referral this year and admissions as well. A lot of those patients that died came from other hospitals, they were never under our care and they were referred to us. They were referred in some critical state,” he said.

He also noted a rise in neonatal referrals, with more new-borns being transferred from private institutions to the GPHC. Rambarran criticised the practice of private hospitals transferring severely ill patients only when their conditions become dire. “Sometimes they send them to us and there is nothing different that we can do for them. There are cases where they send patients that are incubated. I believe that private hospitals like doing this because the death don’t fall on their numbers, it comes under our numbers,” he stated. Rambarran added that he has raised the issue with the Minister of Health and the hospital board, suggesting a review of the reporting criteria for maternal deaths recorded at GPHC.

He emphasised that while the GPHC is the national referral hospital and should receive high-risk cases, many of the transfers arrive too late for effective intervention. Rambarran further disclosed that several of the recent cases are under review and will be forwarded to the Guyana Medical Council for further deliberation. “Many of those reviews are being completed. I will discuss them with my medical team and send some to the Medical Council for deliberation. We also plan to have some discussion with the private hospitals since some of these cases clearly need intervention,” he said. According to previous reports, it has long been a trend for private hospitals to transfer patients to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) only when they are in critical condition.

For 2024, the GPHC recorded a total of eight maternal deaths and 41 neonatal deaths – the lowest figures in the hospital’s recent history. During the institution’s end-of-year press conference, Rambarran noted that those numbers reflected a continued improvement in maternal and neonatal outcomes, surpassing last year’s record-breaking performance.

However, Rambarran emphasised that all eight maternal deaths involved patients that were transferred and were already in severe condition. “This year (2024), we can boast that we have achieved even further. Last year we had 10 maternal deaths, this year we have eight. Of those eight maternal deaths, each and every one was referred to us in a very critical state,” he said. Supporting this point, Dr. Radha Sookraj, Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, highlighted that most of the maternal deaths were indirect and involved patients transferred from other healthcare institutions. “We offered the best care possible with the collaboration of other doctors who were involved,” Dr. Sookraj said. (Kaieteur News)