Patients continue to crowd south hospital

In spite of a public bulletin advising patients to seek medical attention at district health facilities before venturing to the San Fernando General Hospital, large numbers of patients suffering from a viral-type illness turned up at the hospital yesterday. When Newsday visited the hospital yesterday, the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department was filled to capacity with several patients lying prostrate on plastic chairs in the main waiting room. One patient, who did not wish to be identified, said that she had left her Barrackpore home suffering from “severe migrane headaches” since 7am, and had not yet received attention. “Just now is 2pm, and I haven’t seen a doctor yet,” she said, adding that the nurses on duty had informed them that only patients with “serious ailments” would be attended to by the doctors.

She pointed out that many persons had come to the hospital out of fear that they may have the dreaded dengue fever, but were not being examined by doctors. Asked whether she would remain in the waiting room, the visibly tired woman said she was returning home. Another man said that he had accompanied one of his friends who had fallen from a chennet tree and, up to the time of the interview, his friend was still to be treated for his injuries. However, SWRHA Vice Chairman, Dr Joel Sinanan, said that the hospital’s overcrowding was being “managed” by a number of measures put in place by the Authority last Friday morning. “As far as I know, we put in place several measures on Friday to deal with the overcrowding, and from the last report given to me on Friday, things were beginning to settle down on the wards,” he said. He also noted that special “authority” had been given to the hospital’s A&E department to hire tempory doctors in an effort to “speed up” the waiting time at the department. And asked whether patients had been turned away from the hospital over the weekend, Sinanan said that he was not aware of that development.