May Pen Hospital gets sanitisation machine to help COVID fight

KONNEX LIMITED, a Kingston-based telecommunications engineering company, donated a sanitisation machine valued at $850,000 to the May Pen Hospital on Monday. The machine is used for temperature checks, hand sanitising, and it can also conduct a body sanitisation.

Operations Manager of Konnex Ltd KerrieAnne Gray told The Gleaner that her team is currently on a mission to provide equipment support to hospitals across Jamaica to aid in the COVID-19 fight.

Stephan Smith, Konnex’s technology development manager, told The Gleaner that the machine is an “innovative and FirstWorld thinking solution”, which is in keeping with protocols outlined by the World Health Organization.

“Once a person approaches the machine, it takes their temperature and gives a reading to say ‘abnormal’ or ‘regular; temperature. It also has a hand sanitiser, so they (persons) sanitise and then it activates misting.”

The machine then conducts a full-body misting sanitisation with solution containing 70 per cent alcohol.

“What the machine is doing is taking the World Health Organization’s recommendations and automating it. So instead of your security personnel being exposed to someone who may possibly have COVID, it’s a machine that is now being exposed to that person,” said Smith.

‘THE FIRST AND THE BEST’

Senior Medical Officer at the hospital, Dr Bradley Edwards, described the gift as a very important donation to the facility.

“It is innovative ... it is the first in a hospital in Jamaica, and this is the way that May Pen Hospital wants to go with technology. We want to be the first and the best,” Edwards said.

Since January, Clarendon has seen an upsurge in COVID cases, with a count of nine on Sunday, bringing the total tally to 1,113.

Chief Executive Officer St Andrade Sinclair said the recent surge in cases has unearthed new challenges for the hospital.

“We are seeing a COVID surge in the hospital that we have never seen before ... not even in the April 2019 surge. It is really challenging for us at this time,” he disclosed

Sinclair lauded Konnex for the donation, while imploring others to join the effort in supporting healthcare facilities. “The healthcare system needs help, and the only way we can move forward with a community hospital is if we get help from the corporate world,” he said.

Citing limited space and beds at the hospital, Sinclair said the situation is compounded by the fact that some patients have had to call the hospital home, as relatives have not returned for them since they were discharged.

Mayor of May Pen Winston Maragh told The Gleaner that a ward was being prepared on the grounds of the Clarendon Infirmary to facilitate those patients. Sinclair said, however, the process has been tedious, adding that only two of the 12 patients have since been transferred.

“When you drop your friends and relatives off, when they are discharged, please come and get them. It is a demand on the healthcare system,” he lamented.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, speaking in Parliament last Tuesday, announced that COVID-19 wards across the Southern Regional Health Authority were 76 per cent full.

“We have always had a problem with [beds and space]. We run over a hundred per cent maximum capacity ... it is challenging for us,” added Sinclair.