NERHA to meet with union following sickout by medical records workers at St Ann's Bay hospital

The North-East Regional Health Authority (NERHA) says it has scheduled a meeting for Friday with representatives of the staff of the Medical Records Department at the St Ann's Bay Regional Hospital following a sickout on Tuesday.

Staff of the department called in sick over what they said are severe health and safety issues stemming from deplorable working conditions.

On July 12, a fire damaged parts of the Medical Records Department, however,  the Union of Technical Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP) says the staff is still required to access the file room, despite recommendations from firefighters that the room remains hazardous until a thorough cleaning has been conducted. The union says the cleaning is yet to take place.

In a media release on Thursday, NERHA said it has engaged with UTASP to address the concerns of the health records team. 

It says among the resolutions proposed is for the necessary repairs and renovations to be done to address the immediate concerns of the team. It says, the proposal for the medium term is to renovate the Medical Records Department to optimise the space to make it more user-friendly and functional.

NERHA also notes that the St Ann's Bay Regional Hospital is slated to be upgraded and expanded under a programme with the Inter-American Development Bank, which will include construction of a new medical records department.

Additionally, NERHA says it will begin rolling out the Electronic Health Records System at the hospital in August, and it will see he facility eventually transitioning to a paperless system.

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