Bustamante Hospital expansion plan to be finalised by January

A plan for the expansion of ward spaces to provide an additional 100 beds at the Bustamante Hospital for Children is expected to be ready by January, the hospital's chairman, Kenny Benjamin, has disclosed.

Benjamin was responding to concerns shared by parents in a recent Gleaner report of a bed shortage at the island's only specialist paediatric hospital.

Benjamin revealed that discussions around the funding of the expansion are currently taking place.

“We are trying to get some funding, we realise that the amount of patients coming… are alot more than we are used to, so depending on the Government's allocations we want to build very soon, so we just talking about it,” he said.

But, he noted that “there is a serious attempt now by the Ministry [of Health and Wellness] and the Government to ensure that Bustamante gets its fair share soon”.

Meanwhile, he shared that the beds for the intensive care unit are currently being procured with funds raised by the Shaggy Make a Difference Foundation from a 2018 benefit concert. They are expected to arrive in the first quarter of next year.

“The stuff has been ordered. It will probably take another three months or so to come, so Shaggy and his wife, in consultation with people at the hospital, have decided what they want and that has been ordered,” he said.

Redevelopment plan

In April, Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton outlined plans to further improve the hospital's infrastructure under a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan, which includes the expansion of ward spaces to provide an additional 100 beds, construction of a diagnostic services block, an operating theatre suite, an accident and emergency building, a specialist outpatient block, and a new cardiac wing.

However, he recently acknowledged that the expansion of the facility was “well overdue”.

Speaking during a handover ceremony for medical equipment donated by the Chinese Government yesterday, Tufton stated that, currently, there were no patients at the facility waiting for a bed.

“As far as I know now, there are none that are waiting on a bed, and this is subject to change 'cause it changes every hour,” he said.

The equipment, which includes defibrillators, video laryngoscopes, syringe pumps, physiological monitors, cardiac monitors, and infant warmers, is valued at US$500,000 and will be distributed to health facilities across the island, with the majority going to the Bustamante Hospital for Children.

Stating that “context and sensitivities” are important when discussing healthcare, the minister outlined that the Bustamante Hospital for Children currently admits between 18 and 36 patients per night.

“What is important is that Bustamante Hospital for Children right now is not under any undue pressure. They're under pressure, public health is stressful, but the impression that is being created that somehow there is a huge crisis there… and for everyone who needs a hospital and a doctor it's a crisis, so depending on who you've been talking to it's a crisis, but the fact is they have been managing,” he stated.

He noted that the country is experiencing challenges around critical conditions of respiratory illnesses, fever, cough, seizures, infections, and dengue symptoms.

“And these we have spoken to over and over that the population should be aware that this is the season for that. In fact, I have been on record as saying that we are experiencing a potential triple threat of dengue, COVID, and the flu,” he said.

According to the minister, there are eight dengue cases at the hospital and, up to Tuesday night, there were no COVID-19 cases.

“And when it comes to children, because of the type of dengue strain that is out there and the other issues of flu and infection, they are going to be very much affected. So at any point in time, there will be a misery index within any paediatric institution,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com