WRHA looks to hotel as hospitals fill up

WESTERN BUREAU:

With the nation’s health infrastructure under stress as several hospitals are now beyond their maximum capacity as it relates to bed-space for COVID-19 patients, the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) is seeking available spaces at non-medical sites and sending non-critical patients home to ease the pressure.

St Andrade Sinclair, the WRHA’s regional director, told The Gleaner yesterday that discussions are taking place with the management of the El Greco resort in Montego Bay, St James, to have 30 rooms reserved for COVID-19 treatment and to secure an additional 60 rooms at the facility.

“We are in emergency mode now, and when that goes into play, we activate what is necessary to deal with the overcapacity of patients that we expect. We have 30 rooms reserved at El Greco right now, and we have negotiated with the CEO of the resort to increase that number up to 90, so as you can see we have contingency plans in place,” said Sinclair.

Dr Delroy Fray, the WRHA’s clinical coordinator, said that an assessment is being done at the Falmouth Public Hospital in Trelawny and its field hospital as to whether extra space can be made available for COVID-19 patients.

“Falmouth Hospital has a capacity for 105 beds, but we have a field hospital that can accommodate 36 patients, and we are looking at the space inside to see if we can add another 18 beds in there to deal with any overflow of patients,” said Fray.

“We have to prioritise care when it comes to our patients, so if there is an influx of a lot of patients, we have to look at the wards and see which patients could go home to provide more space on the wards, and to retrofit that area to deal with any extra COVID patients. It is something which we have done in the past, so it is not something new for us,” added Fray.

According to the WRHA’s most recent checks, on Thursday, 53 COVID-19 patients were recorded at the Westmoreland-based 195-bed capacity Savanna-la-Mar Public Hospital.

The Noel Holmes Hospital in Lucea, Hanover, which has a bed capacity of 50, had 15 patients up to Friday while the St James-based Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) – the largest of the hospitals under the WRHA’s umbrella – had 45 COVID-19 patients.

It is expected that the Falmouth Hospital and the CRH may have to shoulder that burden if no other available spaces can be found for the influx of COVID patients at the other hospitals in the region.

On Thursday, Jamaica recorded 544 new COVID-19 cases, one of the largest number of confirmed infections in a day since the start of the pandemic.

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