More surgeries cancelled at San Fernando hospital

For the second day, elective surgeries at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) were cancelled yesterday due to a shortage of nurses at the medical institution. However, vice-chairman of the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA), Dr Joel Sinanan, said the impasse, which developed after an article in a daily newspaper “misrepresented” the contents of a letter by a member of the Anaesthetist Department concerning a situation at the institution last week, would have been amicably resolved during a meeting between members of the hospital’s administration and nurses yesterday.

“We expect the situation to be amicably resolved, and nurses would return to the theatres tomorrow (today),” he said. He said the operating theatres had reverted to “emergency mode” status as only a handful of senior staff nurses had reported for duty yesterday. Meanwhile, SFGH consultant anaesthetist, Dr Anand Chatoorgoon, said only one surgery had been performed out of a scheduled 24 elective surgeries yesterday. “Twenty-three out of 24 elective operations had to be cancelled due to the non-appearance of nurses at the operating theatres,” he said, adding that 15 surgeries had been affected by the nurses’ action on Monday.

He said the sole operation performed yesterday was a Caesarean-section on an expectant mother. He described the cancellations as “unjust, unfair and unreasonable,” saying the affected persons would now have to be  rescheduled for a later date. He said the waiting list for surgeries, which was already long, would now be made even longer.  Efforts to contact MPATT’s acting president, Dr Lakhan Roop, proved futile.