Patient care at heart of Cornwall Regional’s efforts.
ANTHONY SMIKLE, special projects director at Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), has indicated that the longer waiting periods expected at the facility are not desireable, but patient care is at the heart of all they do.
CRH is currently undergoing a refurbishing exercise spurred by longstanding concerns over noxious fumes that have been making staff sick.
“We have gotten support from the Ministry of Health in the form of resources. We have had to employ additional drivers, security personnel, porter services and housekeeping staff, who have to be monitored.
“In the case of drivers, they have to be behind the wheels certain number of hours, because they are transporting staff and patients,” Smikle told a Gleaner Editors’ Forum at the newspaper’s North Street, Kingston, offices.
He said it required teamwork of the highest order to move individuals and equipment to seven different facilities on a 24-hour period every day of the week.
“Moving from a 10-storey where you have all the facilities in one place to seven locations, it is very tough. That is why we are working as a team to try to minimise the time we are out of the building, because it is challenging. It is very challenging,” said Smikle.
He added: “Trips have to be made on a 24-hour basis. You have to get the patients to Falmouth and get them back. Transporting patients to private facility for some of the diagnostic services, it is a constant assessment, looking at any hiccups that can happen, so that the patients’ ultimately are not in a worse-off position.”
One 30-seater bus and another in the next month, three 15-seaters, two additional operating theatres and five ambulances have assisted the process, and in the choice between elective and emergency services, emergencies won.
The Cornwall Regional team noted that obstetrics and cancer patients receive priority over other illnesses such as hernia.