Crisis of unvaccinated patients lingers at UHWI

The medical chief of staff of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Dr Carl Bruce, has said that while most COVID-19 patients at the facility spend two weeks in admission, others have developed brain, heart, and other respiratory diseases requiring a longer period of hospitalisation to address the damage that has been done to their end organs.

“For the more critically ill patients who have required ventilation, some have stayed in hospital even after they have tested negative because they have the long-haul COVID-19,” Bruce said.

“We think the long-haul patients are about double the mortality rate. So, if the mortality rate that we are seeing is say five to seven per cent, the number of long-haul patients we would estimate to be about 15 per cent or above,” he explained.

The medical chief of staff is urging Jamaicans to get vaccinated to reduce the possibility of being hospitalised if they should contract the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.

“It’s still a crisis of unvaccinated patients that we are having,” he said, pointing out that 98 per cent of the hospital’s COVID-19 patients have not received a single dose of vaccine.

Bruce also pointed out that vaccination among medical staff at the UHWI is increasing steadily, as 95 per cent of doctors and more than half the nurses have been vaccinated.

He explained that doctors who had contracted the virus are waiting for a three- to six-month period before taking the vaccine.

“The nurses have improved in recent times. The initial rate was 38 per cent and they are now over 50 per cent. With the Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccines, we have seen an increase in those numbers, so we’ll do a reassessment in short order,” Bruce said.

On Wednesday, Jamaica recorded 251 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections since March 2020 to 83,737.

The positivity rate was 20.7 per cent, with 650 patients in hospitals across the island.

Nine deaths were recorded, increasing the toll to 1,869.

“The testing data islandwide is showing a decrease in the reproductive rate and the positivity rate. At the University Hospital, we expect our numbers to lag behind as we admit severe patients and critically ill patients,” Bruce said.

Of the 55 COVID-19 patients admitted at UHWI, close to 20 are considered severely ill.

The teaching hospital has a “significant challenge” where space is concerned, as there are 40 non-COVID-19 patients who need beds.

The emergency room also has 20 patients in holding, as they await COVID-19 results.

Bruce expressed gratitude to the private-sector group, led by the RJRGLEANER Communications Group, that handed over a field hospital on Thursday with a bed capacity of 40.

“I just want to thank them for putting up this structure. It’s heartbreaking when patients need a bed and they have to be managed outside in the driveway. Just keeping them away from the elements – the wind, the rain and the cold – is something we wanted to achieve, and we have gotten that, so we are grateful,” he remarked.

Bruce added that patients could be housed there as early as this weekend, once the water and sewerage connections are completed.

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com