Boost hospital bed space by 25% – director
Published:Friday | August 27, 2021 | 12:10 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A senior hospital administrator in western Jamaica has recommended boosting bed capacity by 25 per cent to manage the surge of coronavirus cases.
Increasing the bed count from 800 to 1,000 is viewed as critical to hospitals staying afloat amid a flood of admissions and deaths that have exacerbated the fatigue of healthcare workers, said St Andrade Sinclair, regional director of the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA).
The WRHA covers Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James; Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover; Falmouth Hospital in Trelawny; and Savanna-la-Mar Hospital in Westmoreland.
The 57-year-old Type B Savanna-la-Mar Hospital, which is a 200-bed facility, has been bursting at the seams with increasing COVID-19 caseloads and a pool of 25 social patients.
“They have about 293 patients right now and growing. You can make it a 350-bed hospital,” St Andrade Sinclair told The Gleaner. “Noel Holmes is a 50-bed hospital, so if you double your capacity there, you should be okay.”
Cornwall Regional, which was constructed as a 400-bed hospital, is undergoing rehabilitation works and is currently operating with 350 beds.
Falmouth Hospital has 130 beds, with 36 more in a COVID-19 field hospital, has a bed space of 130.
“Cornwall can increase to 400 beds and at Falmouth to approximately 200 beds, which would give us somewhat of an adequate number of bed spaces in handling the daily surge of the coronavirus cases in the region,” said Sinclair.
The WRHA director said that work is advanced at CRH to retrofit space capable of accommodating approximately 20 beds to help manage the bed crisis, which has worsened with the third wave of the deadly virus, including the Delta variant. That expansion is expected to be completed this weekend.
Sinclair said he has signed off on the construction of a field hospital at Savanna-la-Mar Hospital. Some tents have been expanded.
The director said the current rains in western Jamaica could delay the installation of the field hospital, particularly the construction of its base.