WRHA sending patients home ahead of Hurricane Beryl
Published:Wednesday | July 3, 2024 | 12:09 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s expected landfall in Jamaica today, the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) says it has moved to send home patients who do not need in-hospital care, as part of efforts to outfit its hospital facilities to be ready for the storm’s effects.
St Andrade Sinclair, the WRHA’s regional director, made the declaration while speaking to The Gleaner on Tuesday, during which he outlined the current number of bed spaces at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in St James, Falmouth Public Hospital in Trelawny, Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover, and Savanna-la-Mar Public Hospital in Westmoreland.
“We are discharging patients, sending home those who can self-help and those for whom is just bandage changes for their families to assist them with. Every one of the hospitals has that instruction, but in particular Savanna-la-Mar Hospital, which is overcrowded, because they are over 100 per cent capacity; you want to ensure that you discharge the patients who can be discharged and send them home,” said Sinclair.
“The bed capacity is always troubling in the hospitals, but for the west, Hanover’s Noel Holmes Hospital is okay, with 45 beds on average out of 60 beds in use, and that is always at 50 per cent capacity; and at Falmouth Hospital, it is normally 80 beds out of the 135 that are used. Down at Savanna-la-Mar Hospital, that is a 180-bed hospital, but you have 200 persons down there, so it is crazy and unmanageable,” Sinclair outlined. “The CRH, which is supposed to be a 400-bed hospital, is overburdened and part of Falmouth’s facilities have to be shared with it.”
According to Sinclair, the issue of bed spaces is further complicated by the longstanding matter of ‘social patients’, persons who occupy hospital spaces and refuse to go home despite having been cleared for discharge, oftentimes because they have been abandoned by their relatives.
“Bed capacity anywhere in Jamaica is always close to its max, because we have people in the hospitals who, when they are being discharged, their families don’t come to pick them up, and they live in the hospitals. In this region alone, we have over 60 people living in the hospitals right now, and we have to be paying to keep them there,” said Sinclair.
Up to Tuesday, Hurricane Beryl has been listed as a Category 5 hurricane and could potentially be the strongest hurricane to affect Jamaica since Hurricane Dean in 2007.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness issued an advisory on Monday cautioning citizens to take food and water precautions, along with protection of pregnant women and persons with chronic illnesses, as they prepare for the storm’s impact.
Regarding readiness of the WRHA’s hospitals for Beryl’s arrival, Sinclair gave assurance that all four of the hospitals under his jurisdiction are outfitted with the necessary tools to weather the storm.
“We put everything in place – generators, water, batteries, candles, diesel oil, and we are running our emergency operations centres [EOC], all of which are up now, plus we are making our preparations. Our staff is leaving by midday today [Tuesday], and we have our EOC staff coming in tomorrow [Wednesday],” said Sinclair.