A trickle of possible COVID-19 patients seeking emergency hospital care could soon become a flood as the surge of infections deepens, the QEH’s top doctor said Wednesday.
As many as two patients per day are turning up at the Accident and Emergency Department with COVID-19 symptoms, Director of Medical Services Dr Clyde Cave revealed, as he cautioned that this is not only likely to increase but increase rapidly.
The revelation comes a day after the 51st death from the viral infection of a woman who came into the A&E seeking treatment.
“This is not people who are sent to us for assessment because of contact tracing, said Dr Cave. “This is the general population of Barbados that just come to us with something maybe suggestive of COVID or sometimes maybe not and through our screening we are identifying.
“So, there are increased numbers of people who are concerned and we know that that concern is real because we are identifying increasing numbers of people who test positive for COVID.
“Some of these are the Delta variant and if we follow world experience we would expect those numbers to increase and not only increase but increase rapidly.”
On Tuesday, a 65-year-old woman who turned up at the A&E succumbed to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 51. The Ministry of Health reported the deceased woman had underlying health issues and was not vaccinated.
Appearing on Voice of Barbados as a guest on an edition of Down to Brass tacks, Dr Cave maintained that the island’s primary hospital is keeping ahead of the expected surge in cases by implementing strict measures to safeguard patients and staff.
He said: “The construction around our newly constructed Accident and Emergency, the erection of tents, that’s because we need extra space for this anticipated increase in cases. We have started to see it and we expect more.”
He further disclosed that A&E has been divided into several sections and there would be rigorous testing to keep the viral illness at bay.
Dr Cave said: “The screening and triage set up is going to be augmented with testing because as we reach this level of virus, we are going to have to test everyone coming, that’s patients and visitors, it may be a multi-layer testing that we would do, rapid screening tests to allow us to control the numbers we expect to show up and there may be secondary testing for admission to isolation or to other parts of the hospital.”
The QEH official insisted that following the protocols of wearing masks, sanitizing, physical distancing remain the best defense against the deadly viral illness. He also urged Barbadians to get vaccinated.
He told the radio programme he was not yet satisfied with the rate of vaccination among QEH staff, though there have been some improvements, particularly with the arrival of the Pfizer vaccine which apparently is the preferred vaccine among workers.
“We are increasing the number of staff who is vaccinated, honestly, not as fast as I would like but we have seen some improvement, we have an ongoing programme,” Dr Cave said.
“So we are working to convince, we are having some success, but in my personal view we need to go faster.”
(sandydeane@barbadostoday.bb)
