Blada.com – citizen information – Guyana University Hospital: the reorganization of hospitals is taking shape

03/01/25
Guiana University Hospital: the reorganization of hospitals is taking shape

On the night of December 31 to January 1, the health cooperation group (GCS) called to become the headquarters of the future University Hospital of Guyana, began its care activities in its own name. If this changes nothing for the patients – who are cared for in the same place – and for the professionals – who continue their activity on the same site -, it is one more step towards the creation of the CHU.

At the entrance office of the Cayenne Hospital Center, it is barely 1 o'clock, on this New Year's Eve night, when Christophe Bouriat, general director of the Cayenne Hospital Center, and Salah Daoui, its director of financial affairs, join the entrance office. Since midnight, four agents have been busy on their computers around Christine Abrahim, customer service manager. The same scene is reproduced at the emergency entrance office, at the maternity office, at the Kourou Hospital Center (CHK) and at that of Western Guyana (Chog). In total, fifteen agents from the entrance offices of the three public hospitals and five IT specialists are mobilized on this night which marks Year I of the Guyana University Hospital.

The manipulation is easy to understand, but tedious and cannot be postponed. On December 31, Laurent Bien, director general of the Regional Health Agency, authorized several healthcare activities at the health cooperation group – health establishment (GCS-ES, read below)). In practice, this involves transfers of certain activities from the three public hospitals to this new establishment. The latter will thus be able to be labeled a Regional Hospital Center in the coming months and then sign the agreement to create the CHU with the University of Guyana. During this New Year's Eve night, it was therefore a question of closing on December 31 the stays of nearly 400 patients in the establishment where they are currently hospitalized. And to open a new stay from January 1 within the GCS-ES. If in practice patients do not have to change rooms, beds or healthcare teams, it was essential to create a stay in the establishment which now owns the activity for which they are cared for.

In detail, this concerned approximately:

200 HCC patients;
50 at CHK;
120 or so.

The majority of transfers could be carried out overnight. A new step has therefore been reached on the path to the CHU.

A new health establishment is created

On July 29, the Regional Health Agency approved the creation of the health cooperation group (GCS) as a precursor to the Guyana University Hospital. Since January 1, this has officially been the fourth health establishment (GCS-ES) of the future CHU, alongside the hospital centers of Cayenne (CHC), Kourou (CHK) and West Guyana (Chog). In fact, the day before, Laurent Bien, general director of the ARS, granted several healthcare activity authorizations to the new structure. In fact, the activities carried out by the GCS-ES continue to be carried out in the three public hospitals as “GCS-ES sites”. The CHC, the CHK and the Chog now house:

Activities for which the GCS-ES holds authorization;
Activities that they themselves own.

In detail, the ARS granted:

Three new medicine authorizations for the three GCS-ES sites. They take over almost all of the medical activity of the three historic establishments;
Three new surgical authorizations for each of the three sites, still on behalf of the GCS-ES. The sites will cover the surgical specialties which are priorities in the universityization process: gynecological surgery, urological surgery, visceral surgery and neurosurgery. The GCS-ES obtained for the first time in Guyana the authorization for neurosurgery in the stereotaxic modality (neurosurgery technique to reach deep areas of the brain precisely, using neuroradiological identification);
Two critical care authorizations for the CHC and Chog sites. The neurovascular intensive care unit (NICU) and the cardiological intensive care unit (Usic) have been reauthorized. It should be noted that the Kourou site will be equipped with six exempt multipurpose intensive care unit (Usip) beds. It is scheduled to open this month. Finally, the Cayenne site will have a pediatric intensive care unit with six to eight beds. It could open in 2027 or 2028, depending on the work that needs to be carried out.
An interventional cardiology authorization, transferred by the CHC for the benefit of the GCS-ES.
Three authorizations for surgery under the new regime were finally granted to CHC, CHK and Chog in their own names. A fourth authorization was granted to the Saint-Gabriel private hospital. The CHC is the only establishment to have obtained the pediatric surgery modality and the bariatric surgery modality.

By obtaining these authorizations, the GCS-ES meets the criteria to be able to be labeled a Regional Hospital Center:

Provide routine care to the nearby population;
Develop high-tech support for the entire regional population.

Once this label has been obtained, the establishment may consider signing the agreement to create the CHU with the University of Guyana.

The eight centers and services of the GCS-ES

Emergencies – critical care (emergencies, Samu, forensic medicine, continuing care and resuscitation, pediatric resuscitation and organ harvesting) led by Dr. Mosa Tsafehy;
Surgery – anesthesia (urological surgery, neurosurgery, digestive and visceral surgery, operating room, anesthesia, pain and outpatient surgery) led by Dr Anne-Christèle Dzierzek;
Public health – research (Public Health Research Innovation Department, biological resources center, delegation to clinical research and innovation, permanent access to health care, precarity, promotion-prevention-partnership-education in health, sexual health and reproductive) led by Professor Antoine Adenis;
Medicine 1 (cardiology, neurology, pulmonology, hepato-gastroenterology, endocrinology, diabetology, nutrition and nephro-dialysis) directed by Dr Dominique Louvel;
Medicine 2 (infectious disease, dermatology, palliative care and multipurpose and internal medicine including rheumatology, hematology and acute geriatrics) directed by Professor Félix Djossou;
Woman – mother – child (neonatal medicine, pediatrics, pediatric surgery and gynecology-obstetrics) led by Professor Narcisse Elenga;
Medical-technical (imaging, anatomo-cytopathology, pharmacy for indoor use in Cayenne and biology in Cayenne) directed by Professor Magalie Demar;
CDPS – local hospitals (as well as mobile local teams) led by Dr Cyril Rousseau.

The CHC maintains two poles: