‘CRISIS MODE’

WESTERN BUREAU:

NURSES ASSOCIATION of Jamaica (NAJ) President Patsy Edwards-Henry believes they are now in “crisis mode”, given the number of healthcare workers across the island who have been impacted by COVID-19, and other illnesses with flu-like symptoms.

The revelation comes amid a disclosure by Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie that major hospitals have exhausted more than 90 per cent of their overall bed capacity.

As at Tuesday, 362 people diagnosed as positive for COVID-19 were hospitalised, but 210 more beds were occupied with persons suspected of having the respiratory disease, Bisasor-McKenzie told Nationwide News Network on Wednesday.

Around 700 beds are specifically allocated for COVID-19 patients.

Edwards-Henry told The Gleaner that regional health authorities said that regional health authorities may soon have to collaborate to address the management of hospitals.

The NAJ has reported that some 200 nursing personnel are out sick due to COVID-19, and Edwards-Henry said she has already held discussions with the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) on the issue, including the measures that may need to be implemented to counter the pandemic’s current impact on healthcare workers.

“I had dialogue with the regional director from the SERHA and it seems we are now in a crisis mode. We spoke about hospitals being placed on emergency mode, the possibility of having to ask persons who are on leave to come in and assist, and the possibility of asking those persons who had requested leave to defer that leave until we settle down,” said Edwards-Henry.

“I have not spoken to the regional directors from the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) or the North East Regional Health Authority (NERHA), but you must remember that SERHA has the majority of hospitals and specialisations. I do believe there will be a collaboration among the regions and we may hear pretty soon that the entire island is in emergency mode,” the NAJ boss added.

“I am hearing from a number of areas that nurses are falling ill, some are having flu-like symptoms, others are not feeling well. We have quite a few nurses who have been tested, and some are coming back positive (for COVID-19) while others are not.”

WRHA JURISDICTION

Dr Delroy Fray, the WRHA’s clinical coordinator, told The Gleaner that 15 doctors and 30 nurses under the WRHA’s jurisdiction had called in sick on Monday due to the virus, for which a total of 103,458 confirmed cases have been recorded locally up to Sunday.

“We had about 30 of the nurses with COVID-related issues and for the doctors, it was around 15 of them by midday on Monday. What we had to do was to readjust the schedule to deal with those issues, but the good thing is that none of those workers need[ed] to be hospitalised,” said Fray.

“In fact, 90 per cent of our doctors are vaccinated, so we expect that within five days they should return to work. That is the new policy, in that once you are asymptomatic for three days you do not need any testing, and you can return to work,” Fray added.

He was making reference to a notification that was sent out recently by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, advising that healthcare workers who are found to have COVID-19 but are not showing any symptoms will not be required to miss any time at work. Those workers must adhere to strict self-monitoring and mask-wearing protocols for 14 days, and follow the appropriate COVID guidelines if they develop symptoms during that period.

But at least one nurse assigned to the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James does not believe that such guidelines should be in place, as the lack of COVID-19 symptoms does not mean total absence of the virus.

DISAGREEMENT

“When some of my colleagues would be out sick and the few that are left would be charged with carrying the ward, we would just have to do what we have to do. But they were not told to come to work while sick, so that is new to me,” said the nurse, who requested anonymity. “I do not believe that should be happening, because not showing symptoms does not mean that the virus is suppressed in your body. You can still pass it on to your other colleagues or even to patients.”

Since the global outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, the pandemic has taken a personal toll on Jamaica’s healthcare workers as several nurses have died from complications related to the virus up to last October.

Annette White-Best, a nurse at the Percy Junor Hospital in Mandeville, Manchester, was the first nurse in Jamaica to die from COVID-19 complications last August. Her death was followed later that month by the death of Diagrea (pronounced as ‘Deidre’) Cunningham, a supervisor for the paediatric and accident and emergency wards at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital in Westmoreland.

Mental-health nurse Sudeen Lyn Fatt Colquhoun and dietary department attendant Harriet Ledgister Blackwood, both assigned to the Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth; Donnette Gray-Morris, a nurse manager for the dialysis unit at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James; Rachael Edwards, an operating room technician at the Kingston Public Hospital; Kereen Roache Merchant, a registered midwife at the May Pen Hospital in Clarendon; and retired nurse Linnette Johnson all died from COVID-19 in September. Dominique Stevens, a registered nurse at the Kingston Public Hospital, died on October 1.