BLAME GAME

WESTERN BUREAU:

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton is accusing the operators of the Sangster International Airport of attempting to shift blame amid ongoing criticism of the handling of last week’s incident in which 71-year-old Leroy Smith collapsed during check in and died on the floor amid failed attempts to get him transportation to hospital for medical treatment.

Tufton, speaking with The Gleaner last night, said he felt compelled to respond to a statement from MBJ Airports Limited, which appeared to be scapegoating the public health sector.

In a release yesterday, MBJ said airport personnel tried their best to get medical help for Smith, including an unsuccessful attempt to get an ambulance from Cornwall Regional Hospital.

However, Tufton has taken issue with MBJ’s claims, pointing to an arrangement the airport said it has with Hospiten to handle medical emergencies.

“I don’t want to overly ventilate the issue in public, out of respect for the family members of the deceased. And it is in poor taste, and I think that it is unfortunate that the airport management have sought to do this through this release in order to try and protect themselves,” said Tufton. “What we need to do, myself as part of the Government, Minister [Daryl] Vaz with direct responsibility for the airport, and the Airport Authority [of Jamaica], the oversight body, is to sit and determine what went wrong and how this can be corrected as soon as possible.”

SHOULD NOT HAPPEN AGAIN

In fact, Tufton said what happened to Smith on the floor of the airport, where he reportedly died more than half an hour after he fell, was something that should never happen again.

“I think it is dangerous not to have the basic minimum, which should include ambulance services stationed at the airport. But again, this is an issue that I believe the Government will need to ensure that is in place, if it is not in place. But I think it is in very poor taste, and indeed disrespectful to the deceased and their family members, for the management of the airport to now be placing in the public domain an impression that, somehow, they did their best.”

In seeking to divorce the public health sector from what he said were the failings of MBJ, Tufton blamed the unpreparedness of the airport’s management, saying they did not have an ironclad arrangement in place, hence the failure to provide Smith with the needed healthcare, which could have saved the elderly man’s life after he fell and hit his head while checking in to board an outgoing flight.

“I get the impression that the management of the institution is trying to shift blame from themselves. The fact of the matter is, this is an international airport which, as I understand it, had an arrangement and is expected to have appropriate arrangements in place to deal with emergencies,” said Tufton. “This is standard. It’s not unique to any country, and I have to ask the question, if they had a private arrangement with a private institution to provide services, including services that are linked to emergencies such as this one, why is it that that service was not able to provide the response at all levels, including ambulance mobility?” asked Tufton. “That is a question that I believe needs to be asked, and indeed if it wasn’t in place, it needs to be put in place.”

Tufton said that, going forward, he was going to seek to spearhead measures to ensure that there will not be another issue at the airport where a person in need of emergency health- care does not get it in a timely fashion.

“I have asked the chief medical officer to examine what the rules say around these emergency responses. There is an emergency response mechanism that is linked to both the national fire brigade, which falls under local government, and which involves public health, and we respond to emergencies all the time. In the case of an international airport, which is governed by the Airports Act, I think that there may need to be a review if an ambulance was never stationed at the airport itself. One would expect that that should be the case, and it is something that Minister Vaz and myself have discussed,” said Tufton.

“If they have a contract with a private institution, one would expect that that private institution would provide the services that they require at an appropriate point in time, and I am disappointed that they are now seeking to put out a release to give an impression that somehow it is the public health system, through CRH, that has failed in this regard, because that is not the information that we have, and I have asked my team to examine what has happened on the ground.”

MBJ’S STATEMENT

Earlier in the day, MBJ said in its statement that the airport actively maintains a medical facility at its location, through a contractual arrangement that exists between MBJ and Hospiten for the provision of medical services, which includes a nurse’s station in the terminal and the provision of on-call ambulance services.

“The nurse, in assessing a medical emergency or based on information provided, makes a determination if the patient will require further medical attention, including making the request for an ambulance. These arrangements are in compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organization standards and are part of a comprehensive emergency response plan which is regularly reviewed and tested with other stakeholders,” MBJ said.

The airport operators, in outlining the timeline of events last Wednesday, said the airport’s operations centre was alerted at 11:12 a.m. that a passenger had collapsed, initiating the airport’s emergency response.

“Within one minute, Hospiten was contacted, and the Hospiten duty nurse indicated they were en route to the scene. Contrary to media reports, the Hospiten duty nurse arrived at the scene six minutes after being contacted to attend to the passenger,” MBJ said. “At 11:15 a.m., and for the next 13 minutes, the airport’s operations centre called for an ambulance. They contacted the emergency medical service arm of the Jamaica Fire Brigade and subsequently the Cornwall Regional Hospital, both of which proved unsuccessful. Contact was made with Hospiten’s ambulance service at 11:28 a.m., which arrived within 12 minutes.”

The airport operators noted that, during this time, Hospiten personnel were on-site delivering care to Smith, including administering CPR and other lifesaving measures such as the use of an automated external defibrillator.

“At no time was the passenger left unattended or without medical care once the Hospiten personnel arrived,” MBJ said.