New hospital needed, says Dr Browne

Former Minister of State in the Ministry of Health Dr Sonia Browne says Barbados urgently needs a new hospital.

Insisting that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is in need of attention, she said building a new general hospital was more urgent than a new geriatric hospital which is being constructed in Waterford.

“If I had a choice, knowing the ills within the hospital setting, the issues within the hospital – the infrastructure, pipes bursting, sewage pipes bursting and you can’t reach them because the wards are full, [we need a new hospital],” the St Philip North MP said on Wednesday as she contributed to Budget debate in the House of Assembly.

“In order to fix some of the issues we would have to empty a ward, which is darn near impossible. In my view, we need a new public hospital, probably a little more urgently than the [geriatric hospital].”

The medical practitioner, who resigned from her ministerial position in January after two years on the job, suggested it would have been better to build a new public hospital and relocate elderly patients to the QEH location.

“My vision would have been to build a new public general hospital, renovate the old [QEH] for the elderly – the elderly do not need as much care as the general hospital; they don’t need theatres; they don’t need labs in-house particularly; they won’t need the office space, they won’t need a lot.

“So, If I had to be president for a day – and I say president on purpose – this is one of the things I would really look into. The hospital really, really needs help and we cannot get a lot further in the building as it is,” she said.

Minister of Health Senator Dr Jerome Walcott, during the Estimates debate last week, said the government is moving ahead with plans for the expansion of the QEH to the former Enmore Clinic complex, with the hope that it can be completed within the next two to two-and-a-half years.

Though expressing a preference for priority to be given to a general hospital, the government backbencher said she was “glad in some ways about the new geriatric hospital”.

Construction is being done in two phases. The first will feature 300 beds in a three-storey main building. There will also be ten lounges and two treatment rooms per floor, rehabilitation and daycare facilities, an isolation ward, and a pool for therapy. In the second phase, 105 beds will be added.

Dr Browne said she expected there would be a need for more than those total 400 beds.

 She expressed concern about the growing problem of Barbadians leaving their elderly relatives at the QEH and called for legislation to address it.

The former minister indicated that in some cases, “well to do” families were engaging in this bad practice. She gave an example of a 90-year-old man whose family had left him at the QEH and were living in his house and refused to take him home.

“In my time [working at the QEH] we would put him in an ambulance and take him home where he belongs. But this is not happening. So I’m hoping to see legislation enacted that will have some sort of control in [cases of] these elderly people being dropped off at the hospital for care,” Dr Browne said. “After they’re well they need to go home or find a more suitable facility.” (DP)