St Ann’s dirty laundry piles up

An official from St Ann’s yesterday said, “Another day without service and it will be chaotic. There will be no bed sheets and clothes for patients.”

He said the laundry service had stopped for the past two weeks because an overhead beam was threatening to fall. He said, “It can fall on the heads of workers. When the union saw it, they said it was not advisable for them to work.”

He said the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex was contacted to do the laundry for St Ann’s but the laundry at the Mt Hope facility could not accept the additional work. He said Caura Hospital was also contacted.

The official said the hospital called a contractor about the problem last week but there has been no response. He said the laundry of the hospital has been “down for refurbishment for the last three years but nothing was being done.”

Sharon Cook-Hill, a worker at St Ann’s and Public Services Association representative said the more than 50 laundry workers were “sitting out.” She said they decided last week to stop working in the area.

She said, “If they are not working the wards cannot get linen and patients cannot get clothes.”

Cook-Hill said the hospital management decided to deploy the St Ann’s laundry workers to Caura to do the laundry. She said, “They are waiting on the North Central RHA to give the okay. Everything was discussed but they must get something in writing to start work.”

The North West Regional Health Authority Communi-cations Department stated the problem at the laundry arose because of “structural deterioration and (the) beam looked as if it would fall.”

It reported the laundry was closed on July 13 and other arrangements were being made to get the laundry done for St Ann’s.