As questions continue to be raised about the level of care being administered to patients at the Infectious Disease Hospital at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony is maintaining that the facility is equipped with all it needs including the necessary staff.
The Liliendaal facility is where very ill COVID-19 patients are treated.
The minister was speaking during his daily COVID-19 update where he iterated that there is an adequate complement of staff at the facility. Stabroek News enquired whether the staffers at the facility had been required to work overtime. Anthony responded that there are currently around 101 nurses at the facility along with some 57 doctors.
“At Ocean View I think we have an adequate complement of staff, right now we have about 101 nurses that work at Ocean View and we have 57 doctors that work there,” he noted, adding that there are a number of other ancillary staff at the facility. However, on the issue of staff having to work overtime, he stated that given the special nature of the facility, they have been able to “extend hours” and rotate shifts.
Another concern was raised relating to staff members of the hospital being seen outside the facility during their working hours purchasing items at a location across the highway. In response to this the minister noted, “We would prefer staff not to go out of the facility during their working hours but some people [are] on their breaks [and] they wanna go outside and we can’t prevent that.”
The safety of this practice was then brought into question along with the protocols for staff entering and exiting the building. Anthony explained that there is a strict sanitising protocol for staff entering the building as they would have to change clothing and decontaminate prior to changing into their gowns and personal protective gear.
He added, “If we have too many people being out on the road too often then that is also going to increase the amount of PPE’s that we are using so we have to try to avoid people going on the road.”
The minister also pointed out that some staff are transported to the facility and back home in buses provided by the health ministry while some use their own transportation to get to and from Liliendaal.
