NCRHA running on old vehicles

"Whatever we can do, we will try to do, but we are not doing the East and Central," a driver told Newsday yesterday.

"We used to go the extra mile and make sure everything we get was done."

The North-Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) last Friday rented a vehicle for the drivers for one week. The Ford Taurus they were using was sent for servicing as it was overheating.

He said two vehicles were needed to cover East/Central and for PoS, Barataria and Carenage. A written request has gone to the NCRHA Chief Executive Officer, Charles Mitchell, for a new fleet of vehicles.

With the split of the North-West Regional Health Authority and establishment of the NCRHA, under which EWMSC falls, the driver said the NCRHA was left with old vehicles which are more than ten years old. He said maintenance of the vehicles is expensive.

He told Newsday that the garage did not have a functioning phone and drivers will not respond to directives given via their cell phones.

He said they were not compensated for using their phones.

Another EWMSC worker told Newsday about other transport problems in the NCRHA. The worker said a van based at EWMSC is being used to shuttle biohazard items such as syringes as well as drugs collected from the C40 warehouse (at Chaguaramas), laundry and foodstuff.

When the van is not working properly, another one is used. It is called a "pull start" because of the rope attached to it which is pulled to get the vehicle moving.

The EWMSC has one ambulance which must be towed when it breaks down. The worker said the ambulance and van have inspection stickers dated 2002. She said a private ambulance company is also being used at EWMSC to transport patients and the cost of each trip is $350. It is based near the Adult Priority Care Facility.

She said the Chaguanas Health Facility has an ambulance, but the siren and lights do not work. A few weeks ago a police escort was called to transport a patient from Chaguanas to EWMSC.