Outdated equipment to be blamed for KPH woes – Greene
Published:Friday | October 21, 2022 | 12:06 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
REGIONAL DIRECTOR of the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), Errol Greene, says the main issue facing the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) is the high number of outdated medical equipment that medical personnel have to rely on the administer care to the public.
Speaking with The Gleaner on Tuesday amid calls for a major overhaul of the 200-year-old health facility, Greene said SERHA is in the process of crafting a budget for the next financial year to replace these outdated equipment.
“We have a lot of equipment that are old but we are looking to replace them, we have a schedule that we are putting together to replace them,” he said.
Greene noted that SERHA has procured at a cost of approximately $500 million a shipment of X-ray machines that should arrive shortly for hospitals under its management. He added that ventilators are also on the list of equipment to be replaced.
However, Greene refuted claims made by Dr Morais Guy, opposition spokesman on health and wellness, that the hospital ran out of medical oxygen over the span of three days this week.
“That is not true. That is total, total, total untrue,” he insisted.
According to him, “IGL responded the same day and to the best of my knowledge there was no issue.”
Guy made the claim in a statement on Monday as he disclosed that there was also a massive water leak in the ceiling of the operating theatre.
Peter Graham, managing director of IGL, Jamaica’s sole medical oxygen producer, told The Gleaner that his company delivered supplies as requested by the hospital’s management and was, therefore, unaware of any shortage.
In fact, he said that the hospital had made contact with his company last Thursday and requested an “earlier than normal delivery”, which was granted. The distributor also made a second trip to the hospital on the same day to deliver its usual supplies.
Graham added that there had been no supply concerns, “and none of the hospitals can report supply issues”, as the local plant is providing an adequate supply of the gas.
Responding to the reported water leak, Greene confirmed the occurrence, which, he said, was due to a damaged valve as a result of high water pressure. He said while the issue was fixed almost immediately and only inconvenienced the theatre’s operation for only a “few hours”, the KPH management decided that it was best to suspend all scheduled surgeries.