All at QEH safe, no major damage – hospital CEO

CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Neil Clark has assured that patients and staff at the public hospital are safe amid the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

Speaking on CBC a short while ago, he said the QEH had survived the worst of the Category 3 hurricane, with only a few minor leaks reported.

“I’ve walked around last night, I’ve walked around the different departments and units; it feels very calm and the wind has been quite kind to us so far. It’s been a little bit rougher now this morning, it’s picking up a little bit. We’ve had a few minor leaks but no major damage or no major incident at all. We’re keeping the patients safe, we’re keeping the staff safe, we’re feeding everybody and we’re looking after everybody,” he assured.

“So if you’re at home and you’re worried about your patients or your family members who might be staff, please be assured everything is calm and under control at the hospital.”

Clark confirmed that clinics and theatres for elective surgery remain closed today. He said the aim is to have those reopen from tomorrow.

“As soon as we get the all clear, we’ll review the facilities and the aim would be to allow the outpatient clinics and the theatres to recommence tomorrow. But we’ll have to check the facilities. It will be dependent on the all clear time and we’ll be communicating later on today if that’s the plan that we’ll be bringing the patients back in for clinics and theatres on Tuesday,” the hospital CEO said.

According to Clark, a few patients had turned up at the Accident and Emergency Department during the passage of Hurricane Beryl but the department was “quite calm”.

“I’ve have been down to meet the team. It’s a nice change for them to have that calmness, to catch up with the patients who were in the department before the hurricane started and to move through those patients and to prepare us, I suppose, for after the lockdown is [discontinued] and the patients maybe want to come back out. We should be ready to receive any patients as soon as there’s a need to do that,” he said.