QEH medic: See your doctor, don’t wait

Barbadians were strongly advised Thursday to seek immediate medical attention if they are currently experiencing symptoms associated with COVID-19.

This advice comes from Dr Chaynie Williams, Consultant at the Accident and Emergency Department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, who took part in Thursday’s live COVID-19 update from Ilaro Court.

The A&E is fully equipped to deal with any moderate to severe level patients being presented with any COVID-19 symptoms, so Barbadians should seek medical attention immediately if they have these symptoms, she said.

The advice comes in the wake of a number of deaths of COVID-19 patients who the health authorities said stayed away from seeking medical attention until their conditions had worsened.

Dr Williams said: “I am encouraging you to seek medical attention, I am encouraging you to call for help. The COVID hotline has a team of healthcare professionals [who] will offer advice – the Queen Elizabeth Hospital helpdesk, 536-4800, we can offer advice. We are not asking you to stay home to see how you feel over the next 24 to 48 hours, we are asking you to call for advice.

“The advice usually would be to seek medical attention, the destination would be according to the complaints you are presenting when we are interviewing you.”

Dr Williams also revealed that over the last week ten people have tested positive for COVID while they were seeking medical assistance for respiratory and non-respiratory issues. They were later transferred to an isolation facility.

With elective surgeries at the hospital curtailed, Dr Williams acknowledged a huge backlog of waiting patients.

She said: “We have to recalculate because they were many reasons in 2020 that elective surgeries may have undergone stop and starts. Some procedures which would have been three months [had] increased to 10 months, and later in 2020, there was a significant drive to try to decrease that backlog so now it’s less than that.

“The exact backlog for some procedures, not all, and it’s not in general, it may be on a specific service for a specific condition, can be fairly significant.”

After the medical community lost one of its own to COVID-19 complications, coupled with the stress of medical professionals being on the frontline of the fight against a raging pandemic, Dr Williams said the situation has been taxing but stressed that all medical personnel were still committed to the task.

Dr Williams added: “We as a fraternity are undergoing the grieving process – one because we lost one of our colleagues and two yes we had a minor who several of the paediatric team members we involved in trying to save.

“So yes, it is hard and trying times in the background of managing the pandemic for at least a year now. The morale will wax and wane, I cannot say its unnatural, we are all human and we have families and we have feelings, but one thing I can say is that our team members come to work and give their all every time all the time.” (SB)