COVID-19 patients opt to stay home in deadly gamble against hospitalization, says medic

At least one person has died from COVID-19 after refusing to be transported from home isolation for advanced treatment, a doctor revealed Friday, expressing concern that hundreds of sick patients are barricading themselves from hospitalisation as symptoms worsen.

The news was broken by Dr Adanna Grandison, Consultant Manager of Home Quarantine during a press conference she shared with Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic and Dr Corey Forde, the infectious disease specialist who heads the nation’s isolation facilities.

In updating the country on the state of home isolation, Dr Grandison said she is concerned that hundreds more in home isolation are refusing transport and “escalation of medical care”.

She told journalists that from the start of the programme, 907 people were transported to isolation facilities in addition to 212 people who are already in facilities. But she expressed concern that 373 people have refused transport amid escalation of medical care.

Dr Grandison said: “I want to appeal to all Barbadians…I know there are some persons who are very scared or think there is a need to be scared to go into an isolation facility, but I want to remind you that these facilities are the best-equipped facilities that we have on the island to manage COVID positive patients.”

She said this assessment does not always mean a person would have to stay at the isolation facility. But she stressed that being at the facility allows the healthcare workers to render the necessary medical treatment the patient needs.

Dr Grandison explained: “The reason why we attempt to flag persons red or yellow, is because we want for you to get the necessary care that you need early. So I am appealing to all persons, when you are contacted by a healthcare professional and they have deemed that you may require a closer look or more emergent care that you comply and you agree to be transported to a central isolation facility to be assessed and to be monitored and to get the requisite care that you need.

“Since our programme has started, we had one death unfortunately; and that death has occurred on October 15; and unfortunately it was a person who refused transportation and escalation of care. This bothers me a lot. I chose medicine certainly because I like helping persons; and it bothers me to see that I lose one, even one for me is too many.”

The BAMP executive disclosed thousands of people have so far entered the home isolation project.

“Currently, we have 4,698 total persons out in the community, of which there are nine, of which I am quite proud to smile and say we have single digits in terms of very emergent cases out in the community at this point in time and we expect that those persons would be removed from community within two hours,” she announced.

“Then we have our yellow persons, who are persons, based upon the symptomatology pattern that they have, or their comorbidity status, or even for social reasons, we think that they would need to have a close review at an isolation facility; and currently we have 344 of them out in the community.”

But she expressed delight that the majority of Barbadians and visitors who are in the home isolation programme are safe, putting the figure at 2,470.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb