Infection fight ‘will cost money, manpower’

New anti-virus measures are being implemented at the country’s general hospital as Barbados grapples with its second wave of the coronavirus, Executive Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland said on Thursday.

She outlined to journalists a range of major changes to the hospital’s daily operations.

But the sheer magnitude of the measures is expected to put tremendous pressure on the hospital’s finances and manpower, hospital officials said.

Director of Medical Services Dr. Clyde Cave said: “I think you’ve figured out that this doesn’t all come cheap and I think you’ve realized that even before this [pandemic], we were in a period of financial constraints trying to improve our efficiency,

“The hospital has been full recently and even though there is a seasonal variation, we have been even more occupied than usual, and we attribute that perhaps to some of the change and neglect that happened when we had the initial [COVID-19] lockdown.

“So for ‘non-COVID’ issues, the hospital is pretty maxed out and you can imagine having to ramp up to prepare for COVID. Even though COVID treatment is not at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, our expertise is what has been supporting the Harrison Point [isolation centre], Blackman and Gollop [isolation facility], and now to some extent the prison, and going forward, wherever the need is, we will have to respond.

“This is a small medical community and there are not a lot of physicians with the appropriate training to service and as you would appreciate, even that would require an increase in budget.”

During an almost hour-long presentation, Bynoe-Sutherland noted that in addition to an array of measures implemented during the first wave of the virus, management is considering further restricting visiting hours, pushing back non-emergency surgeries, and transferring at least four departments to a nearby facility at 6th Avenue Belleville, St. Michael. These are the antenatal care, haematology, ear-nose-and-throat and paediatric clinics.

Facilities for rapid testing of patients and staff have been assembled along with exit routes for those who test positive at the QEH. The Accident and Emergency department has also been separated into two sections – one for persons with symptoms of COVID-19 and the other to manage all other emergencies.

Bynoe-Sutherland further disclosed details of an internal contact tracing team to boost the national contact tracing unit in the event of COVID-19 exposure within the hospital, even as four employees tested positive for coronavirus.

But so far, the Executive Chair has said no more cases were recorded. She expressed confidence that the QEH remains at low risk for virus spread.

While acknowledging the changes are a drain on hospital finances, she assured that Cabinet’s COVID-19 subcommittee and the Ministry of Finance is fully supporting the much-needed changes.

Bynoe-Sutherland said: “This is going to be taxing on the financial, human and other resources, but this is part of the unspoken challenge of COVID, in that the level of investment that is required by the government is considerable. I can give the public the assurance that this occupies the attention of the Prime Minister and resource allocators and as they ask us to expand and support, the resources are following therefrom.”

Bynoe-Sutherland also praised experts for their work at Harrison Point, Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Dodds and the set up of 116 beds at the Blackman Gollop School as coronavirus infections continue to soar.

In an apparent response to concerns from the Barbados Nurses Association, the Executive Chair declared that all public medical facilities including isolation and quarantine facilities were fully stocked with Personal Protective Equipment. In fact, she declared that some 694,000 surgical masks and another 162,000 KN-95 masks are also on hand.

“So we have a substantial amount of PPE in hand and we are stocking up to always have a buffer stock of about six months’ supply,” she said. “We have a 24 hour PPE Center at the Nursing Office because our position is no staff should ever be without PPE because of an individual or ward-level deficiency. This is very important.”
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)