Health Minister says patients safe despite flooding at Geriatric Hospital

The Ministry of Health is assuring that none of the patients at the Geriatric Hospital were adversely impacted by the passing of Hurricane Tammy last weekend, despite viral videos on social media showing sections of the facility that were occupied by patients overflowing with inch-deep floodwaters.

Following a mass media campaign launch on Wednesday, Minister of Health Senator The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott told Barbados TODAY that the roofing of the hospital was faulty and no maintenance work had been done for a while.

“There have been issues of maintenance in the Ministry of Health . . . in terms of having been without a technical manager to look over [maintenance problems]. The Technical Management Unit in the ministry has responsibility for dealing with the physical structure and we were without a technical manager for a number of months.

“What happened at the Geriatric Hospital is that it has a concrete roof; water settled over time on there and what they discovered in the middle of the flooding . . . was that the water wasn’t draining off. So it was seeping through the concrete roof into the ceiling and pouring down into the ward. They shifted the patients to another ward and then they drilled holes so that the water could run off. It has to be addressed. You saw the photos of the grass and everything growing up. These are the issues that we have to address,” he said.

Last Saturday, the island was drenched as a result of feeder bands from Hurricane Tammy.

In a viral video, sections of the hospital, including those where patients were housed, were flooded and containers were placed strategically to catch water dripping from the roof.

Personnel from the Barbados Defence Force intervened and moved the patients to other wards that were not flooded.

The government faced heavy public criticism and many expressed concern about the welfare of the elderly patients.

Minister Walcott also used the opportunity to weigh in on another recent viral video showing two patients fighting at a polyclinic. That video showed two men in an altercation, with a woman trying in vain to break it up. Other patients fled as the fight drew near to them. At one point, a security officer came out of a room and watched what was happening.

“We expect Barbadians to come to these centres seeking attention. We expect them to behave in a civil and proper manner. We don’t expect them to be fighting and damaging equipment and all of that. That is all I will say at this point in time on the matter,” he said.
(SZB)