Senator details long list of shortcomings at public hospital and worries about operating-room situation
Senator Johnathan Joseph, the United Progressive Party’s front man
on health, has chronicled a number of issues affecting the country’s
only public hospital and pointed the finger at Health Minister Sir
Molwyn Joseph.
In a just-published missive, the senator addresses the matter of the
hospital’s four defunct operating theatres. He notes that this
situation has prompted the creation of a makeshift theatre,
converted from an endoscopy room, to facilitate emergency
surgeries.
However, he notes that this facility poses some degree of danger to
patients’ health, since it is without a proper HEPA-filtered air-
conditioning unit, and this puts patients at high risk for post-
operative infections.
According to Joseph, in its current state, the hospital would be
unable to handle a mass-casualty situation – putting all residents
and visitors at risk if there were to be a natural disaster or other
event with multiple victims.
The hospital’s air-conditioning system is not working, Senator
Joseph says. Add to that the lack of basic supplies and medication
and the non-functioning diagnostic machines, including the MRI
which reportedly has been down since COVID, he says.
Joseph reports, as well, that the modern 64-slice CT scanner is
down, and this has forced hospital personnel to re-use the outdated
and sluggish 16-slice scannr as an alternative.
On the laboratory side of the operation, Joseph speaks about
patients’ long wait times to have certain tests, including an
ultrasound, done. Apparently, appointments are now being given
for May and June.
The UPP senator alleges that the lab is constantly short of re-agents
for routine blood work, which compels persons to use private labs
and pay substantial sums of money out of pocket.
In addressing the clinics, the UPP senator says he is at a loss to
understand why it is taking so long to have the Clare Hall and All
Saints facilities – which were in a state of major disrepair – back up
and running.
In the meantime, he notes that the clinics have been consistently
neglected and left short of supplies. This has compromised the
quality of the primary healthcare system on which the most
vulnerable residents rely.
The senator is also concerned by reports that the Medical Benefits
Scheme has removed many drugs from its formulary, and those left
allegedly are often in short supply, causing patients to wait up to 10
days to collect their medication.
Given this litany of ills, Joseph is recommending to Prime Minister
Gaston Browne that Sir Molwyn be removed as minister of health.
