Sav to tap schools, churches for COVID bed space

WESTERN BUREAU:

As the number of COVID-19 patients requiring admission continues to climb, the health authorities are looking to partner with nearby schools and churches to expand the medical wards to ease the pressure on the severely strained Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital in Westmoreland.

Hospital CEO Camille Lewin made the revelation yesterday as she gave The Gleaner an update on the crisis facing the facility. She said that her team, with support from the Western Regional Health Authority, is taking steps to engage the private sector to create additional bed space at church halls or schools within proximity to the Beckford Street-based facility.

“It's something that we are looking into. We have not started the negotiations yet, but that's one of the plans we are looking at in anticipation of additional patients coming in,” Lewin said.

She added that work was also under way to retrofit and create additional space at the medical facility, which has a capacity for 205 beds but is now bursting at the seams with more than 300 patients, including scores waiting for beds for over a week now.

“Right now we are trying to repurpose another area in the hospital. That would give us another 14 beds,” Lewin said.

She said that a team from the health ministry visited the health institution on Wednesday to examine the proposed location for the erection of a field hospital.

“That will give us another 30 to 35 beds, so we continue to look outside of the hospital for additional space that has adequate bathrooms facilities,” she added.

On Tuesday, overworked nurses and other healthcare workers temporarily withdrew their services, demanding that the facility be declared an emergency zone.

Lewin says her head nurse and her deputy have been working around the clock, not only supervising, but personally attending to patients as a result of the workload as COVID-19 cases catapult in the southwestern parish.

“Up to Wednesday, four doctors went off shortly after they were exposed. Two tested positive, and this is happening from an already dwindling and tired workforce,” she revealed. “My matron pulled close to 40 hours. She worked from Monday morning, and it was not until after 2 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon when I told her that she needed to go home now.”

She said on Tuesday night that of the 45 nurses rostered, only 13 reported for duty because of burnout.

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