Medical authorities continue to declare Barbados free of a new strain of human coronavirus – COVID-19 – as yet another suspected sufferer tests negative for the bug, Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George reported today.
The individual turned up at Accident & Emergency at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) on Thursday complaining of experiencing coronavirus symptoms, Dr George said, but after a series of tests the results returned negative.
This prompted both Dr George and Minister of Health and Wellness Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic to appeal to the public not to show up at public health care facilities if they believe they have the virus. The two were speaking during hearings on the House Appropriations Bill.
They were responding to a question from Minister of Transport, Works and Maintenance Dr William Duguid, himself a dentist in private practice, who asked what protocols were in place for someone who may think they have the symptoms. He wanted to know if they should just show up at Accident & Emergency.
Health minister Lt. Col. Bostic said there were setting a hotline that can be used for that purpose. But he said he was opposed to people just showing up at QEH.
He told the House: “We are going to be doing some work on this in terms of public service announcements.
“As a ministry, we would rather for persons who maybe feeling ill or persons who feel that they may have the symptoms of COVID-19 to call a hotline which we will establish or we will give notice of shortly or call one of our polyclinics or facilities, but not to report to the hospital.
“We would want to treat to that person or those persons in a different manner so that is does not compromise the safety and integrity of the hospital.”
The Medical Chief agreed with the Minister and then revealed that a person with a “suspected case” of the virus presented themself to the A&E just Thursday.
Dr George said: “I agree with the Minister the most ideal place for a person top present themselves is not the Accident & Emergency.
“However, I’ll be very frank yesterday there was a potential patient who interacted with the emergency room and I am convinced that the necessary precautions were taken it was handled in a way that was highly professional.
“The testing was done, the tests were negative and the patient was discharged.”
Chairman of Committee Dr Sonia Browne inquired whether private medical practitioners were involved since people who have a cough or high fever mainly just show up at a doctor’s office.
Dr George responded by saying that Government had organised a forum for private health care workers which was poorly attended.
“At a cost to Government we had brought BAMP on board. We were hoping to get 80 individuals to come and hear about COVID-19. We also invited the pharmaceutical agencies and unfortunately the outcome for that was quite poor. We only [saw] 20 individuals attending,” he said.
But Dr George said that BAMP hosted a public forum on Thursday which was able to capture a greater number of physicians who were both members BAMP and non-members. He explained that the Ministry of Health was also heavily involved in that forum.
He said: “We agree there is much more work to be done in terms of sensitising physicians in this country. If COVID-19 becomes very wide spread in Barbados 80 per cent of those cases will have to be managed by persons in primary care whether it’s in polyclinics or whether it’s by general practitioners.
“That is why we are urging the general practitioners to come on board.
“We issued guidelines because there was a lot of uncertainty about how to deal with a case if it ever comes to their private office.”
