Temporary care facility set up at QEH

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has set up a field hospital with respiratory systems to accommodate patients who are awaiting their COVID-19 PCR test results.

Executive Chairman of the QEH Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland said the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) has once again contributed to the National COVID-19 response with the setting up the facility adjacent to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department.

She said that the field hospital is needed and necessary at this time as the A&E Department continues to experience “severe congestion” due to an increase in the number of local COVID-19 cases, posing a risk for patients and staff.

“Obviously since we have had community spread, we have seen our numbers at A&E increase. We had to identify an approach that would locate patients close enough to the expertise within the Accident and Emergency room and also provide an area that people can be monitored while they await PCR test results.

“So that facility has been set up, it is now in a state of readiness and we are putting the appropriate staff and supplies in place to make it fully operational. Basically, it is to take some of the load off the Accident & Emergency room’s respiratory section,” Bynoe-Sutherland said.

The Executive Chairman explained that if someone tested positive for COVID-19, they would not be admitted to the Harrison’s Point, St Lucy isolation facility or any other, unless they have received a confirmatory PCR test from the Bes-Dos Santos laboratory. She said delays in the return of the test results, result in patients waiting in the A&E, creating an uncomfortable environment for patients and staff.

She said patients awaiting their PCR test results would be accommodated at the field hospital.

“The guys have been working over the weekend to get this hospital ready for patients and to ease the congestion currently taking place inside the Accident and Emergency room. But the main objective of the field hospital is the place where persons awaiting their PCR test results from the lab will be placed,” Bynoe-Sutherland said. (anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)