Third wave of COVID will put more strain on CRH — Harvey
Although the number of patients with Covid-19-related symptoms entering the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James, has declined dramatically in recent weeks, senior medical officer for the facility, Dr Derek Harvey, said a third wave of the virus will result in grave strain on the institution, which is still being renovated.
Pointing out that the Type A facility had patients utilising the chairs and benches as their beds in the height of the novel coronavirus pandemic, due to a shortage of beds available, Dr Harvey said that this might become a reality once more if the hospital admissions peak with COVID patients.
“We used chairs at one stage but if you go now, the number of persons who are coming in with Covid-related symptoms is going down…but if we have a third wave, I would assume that we are going to go back to utilising some chairs or benches, as the need may arise because what you’re looking on in health is your risk management,” Dr Harvey explained.
The senior medical officer added that the option of turning away patients in a State-run hospital does not exist, and so, they are forced to get innovative with the little resources they have.
“Now, in a Government facility, you don’t have the option of turning [patients] down. And it is no point telling [individuals to go elsewhere]; you are from St James, and I am telling you to go to Hanover or Falmouth,” Dr Harvey told the Jamaica Observer West.
While an individual who is ill might decide to go to the other hospitals in the western region, namely the Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover or the Falmouth Hospital in Trelawny or the Savanna-la-mar Hospital, Dr Harvey said, these are smaller facilities, and the influx of patients will also result in a strain on those facilities.
“[If] you go to Hanover, [while] it is a smaller unit, you might be able to get care initially but [as] the numbers rise, you are going to find that the demand outweighs the resources,” he said.
Noting that the COVID-19 wing, which was recently built at the Falmouth Hospital, was an attempt by the Government to ease the pressure off the Cornwall Regional Hospital, Dr Harvey raised the question of who will be there to manage the patients.
“They built a wing to accommodate these types of patients so that would ease off some of the burden, but here is the issue, depending on the severity of your problem, a ward will be there to accommodate the patients but what about the expertise for managing these patients?” he questioned.
The complexity of this issue, coupled with the inadequate bed space, Dr Harvey expressed, have been the main contributing factor as to why patients have had to make chairs and benches their place of slumber at the Cornwall Regional Hospital. The private institutions, he pointed out, are also not adequately equipped for COVID-19 patients.
“So, if you move the persons over, you will have to have the facilities [and] expertise in place to manage the patients so it is a complex situation, it is not as simple as it seems. When the demand gets very high, you may come across situations where persons [who are admitted] sit in chairs, I would not deny that. But if [that is] the option which [we] have, [then we] say, this is what [we] have to offer. [We] also [have to] remember, when you are dealing with things like COVID-19, even the private facilities cannot manage these patients,” he told the Observer West.
“If you put a COVID [positive] patient in some of the private facilities and you get transmission in that place, it is going to affect the services so most of these patients would come into our public system in Montego Bay, which is Cornwall Regional Hospital,” Dr Harvey added.
According to the Ministry of Health and Wellness, as of Tuesday there have been 50,124 coronavirus infections on the island and 1,075 COVID-19 fatalities.
But, with the opening up of the entertainment sector as of today, concerns have been raised over a possible increase in the number of infections.