‘Dirty’ Mt Hope operating theatre shut down

Idi Stuart
Idi Stuart

THREE weeks ago the operating theatre at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, had to be shut down for several violations by the Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA). This was revealed yesterday by Idi Stuart, president of the Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA).

In a phone interview, Stuart told Newsday while the issue was not highlighted in the public domain, the association was waiting for the report from the OSH to bring it to the public’s attention.

However, he said, “The theatre was not only shut down due to the shortage of staff but the theatre was poorly maintained. It was extremely dirty.

“This is a theatre, which is supposed to be one of the most sterilised environments in the hospital, and it was not done at all. It had to be shut down for a week while the cleaning took place.

“Then the fumes from the cleaning caused a number of nurses to fall sick.”

Stuart said OSHA had to be called in for several violations.

“The NCRHA (North Central Regional Health Authority) has blocked fire escapes; (it has) no policies or standard operating procedures, they don’t have a fire certificate, to name a few.

“Several breaches were highlighted by the inspector who visited the medical complex.”

He said OSH was expected to return to do more spot checks.

Stuart also said the TTRNA was also concerned about another issue the NCRHA refused to address: continuing to leave only one nurse to work on a ward.

“Nowhere in the world will you see that type of nursing numbers. The association has written the Prime Minister on this, because we brought up this issue with him at his public consultation meeting in Mt Lambert, and again we brought up the same issue with him at Exodus panyard in Tunapuna.

He said the PM had not responded yet. “We have been told by his secretary the matter is still on file and the PM has not gotten to the matter as yet. So we will be looking out for that correspondence from the PM.”

Stuart said, while the NCRHA continued to do a lot of public relations campaigns, the hospital was very short-staffed. He said the NCRHA had a shortage of more than 300 nursing personnel and that was causing mass problems.

Several calls to NCRHA CEO Davlin Thomas and corporate communications manager Candice Alcantara for comment went unanswered.

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"‘Dirty’ Mt Hope operating theatre shut down"

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