Call ahead

All persons suffering from asthma must now “call ahead” before they go to the Accident and Emergency Department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) for treatment.

Speaking at a media briefing at Illaro Court, this evening, Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Anton Best said this new measure was a part of Barbados’ COVID-19 protocol to contain the spread of the virus.

“What we are recommending to persons is to call ahead. Please do not go to your health-care facilities. Please do not go to the Accident and Emergency Department. If you have a respiratory problem you have to call ahead. When you call ahead, you would be directed as to where to go,” he said.

The CMO noted that currently, in addition to QEH, all nine polyclinics can treat respiratory cases. But, he explained that the reason asthmatics must call ahead is so that health authorities would be able to send them to the appropriate treatment centre.

He said if someone is an asthmatic and at the same time is a suspected case of COVID-19 they would have to be managed differently.

“However, if you are an asthmatic and you have absolutely no symptoms and signs in keeping with COVID-19; so your asthma attack is not associated with a fever for instance, or not associated with a sore throat, we recommend that you can still go to Accident and Emergency, but that has to be a decision between the health-care providers and the patient.

“Don’t just turn up. Don’t make any assumptions, you have to call ahead. You can always call the hotline of the Ministry of Health to get guidance where that is concerned or you can call your health-care provider directly,” Dr Best said.

Meanwhile, to reduce the number of persons being nebulized, which places the doctors and nurses at risk, the AED is separating out the milder cases and using spacers.

Persons who are more severe are being nebulized with doctors and nurses using appropriate protective equipment (AH)