Scaffold victims stable

Minister of Health, John Rahael, said the unnamed man had his leg amputated on Wednesday night after doctors had tried in vain to save it.

Rahael was addressing yesterday’s post-Cabinet Media Conference at Whitehall.

He said of about 20 victims initially admitted to Port-of-Spain General Hospital on Wednesday, only some were still hospitalised. Nine victims are in the Orthopaedic Ward, one is in ward 24 having had a CAT scan for a possible head injury, while one man had undergone the amputation.

Rahael said: “We don’t expect any more surgery. We expect all patients to be sent home in the next ten days.” He praised hospital staff for their prompt response to the accident especially as some 18 victims were all being treated at once.

Minister of Works, Colm Imbert, who chaired the media conference, said Cabinet is now accelerating the appointment of members of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority. This body monitors the working of OSHA.

Imbert said: “Cabinet approved today the persons who will comprise the Occupational Safety and Health Authority.”

Although part of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is in force, Imbert could not give a time frame for the full implementation of the rest of the act. He referred reporters to Minister of Labour, Danny Montano.

Imbert assured that the Government has acted promptly on the near tragedy.

He said while the responsibility for industrial safety rests with the Ministry of Labour, his ministry will help investigate the scaffolding collapse. “The Ministry of Labour made a direct request of the Ministry of Works yesterday to provide engineering expertise to assist the inspectors of the Factory Inspectorate to look at the structural integrity of scaffolding that collapsed.”

Imbert urged the public not to prejudge the situation. “There is an ongoing investigation which started yesterday (Wednesday) and I think it would be wrong certainly of me or anybody else to prejudge what occurred on that site.”

Asked if the Government had found a new haste to implement OSHA, Imbert said Montano had previously circulated the relevant cabinet note to ministers. “It is timely that it was before the Cabinet today, but the note was circulated to ministers on Tuesday.”

He said Montano has been working on the list of appointments for a while, and they were not being now done just because of Wednesday’s accident.