Overcrowding at south hospital under control

CHAIRMAN of the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) Imtiaz Ahamad yesterday revealed that overcrowding of patients at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) has been brought “under control.”

Ahamad, who pointed out that patient admission and discharge figures were not immediately available, said the contingency measures put in place by the Authority last Friday, had been successful. “Apart from the transfers which took place during the height of the influx of patients, no one was transferred from the hospital over the weekend,” he said. Ahamad also sought to clarify a statement attributed to SWRHA vice-chairman, Dr Joel Sinanan, that “special authority” had been given to the Accident and Emergency Department for the hiring of doctors on a temporary basis.

Ahamad said that certain procedures existed within the hospital system which allowed for the recruitment of doctors on a “session by session” basis to “fill any gaps” that may develop in the system.  Ahamad added that the practice had been implemented at the institution from time to time, but pointed out that, due to the contingency plans, the recruitment measure was not needed in this instance. And on the question of the identity of the viral illness, Ahamad said that to date, the Ministry of Health’s testing centres had not detected any signs of the dreaded Dengue virus in any of the patients who showed symptoms of the viral illness.