A week-long workshop on basic fundamentals in intensive care has kicked off at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital in Congo Town, outside Monrovia. The workshop, which kicked off on Wednesday, May 30, 2012, is being implemented by the hospital. The intensive care workshop is also in commemoration of the 50th Jubilee of the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital.

The workshop brings together over 30 participants, including doctors, nurses, Physician Assistants, medical students, amongst others. The workshop, which is expected to climax on June 8, 2012, is being facilitated by two intensive care specialists from Spain, including Nurse Nagore De Aguirre and Dr. Javier Maywar.

According to the Chief Medical Doctor of the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital, Madam Lily Sanvee, the training will help strengthen the capacity of the participants, especially in the area of intensive care.

She described the workshop as very significant, saying it would enable health workers properly take care of patients.

She said the participants will acquire basic knowledge in courses like respiratory, circulatory, and renal failures.

Speaking further, Madam Sanvee said the participants will also gain knowledge on 'how to take care of patients that are critically ill'.

The chief medical doctor of the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital underscored the need for doctors to have their 'area of specialization' in order to attend to patients that are in critical conditions.

Listen to her: "The intensive care unit is a very important area in any hospital. Patients or people coming to the hospital with multiple traumas are taken to this unit. The intensive care unit staffs are the ones who take appropriate steps to save the patients. We have very few doctors in this area of intensive care and there are people who are specialized in this area to take care of critical patients. We are expecting at the end of this workshop that everyone (participants) will learn something new.

She expressed the hope that there will be a 'great improvement in caring for patients' at the climax of the training.

Meanwhile, Madam Sanvee has renewed calls for assistance to the hospital.

She again decried that the hospital is in dire need of money in order to continue rendering medical services to the public.

"This hospital has always been depending on donors funding and our main donors are from Spain. This country is now having serious crisis. We have addressed our plight to the Government of Liberia and we are hoping that government will provide more subsidies to our hospital to be able to sustain us," she pleaded