Health Minister: Medical records available on request

Health minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the medical records of patients who have died from covid19 are available to their families if they request them.

Speaking at Monday’s media conference, he said it has always been the policy of the ministry and the regional health authorities to release medical records on request, and this process goes on unimpeded.

He said the only difficulty which may occur is when the relation of the person requesting the records is in question, for example when “pumpkin-vine relations” are making the request.

He responded to reports of covid19-positive patients being treated at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Centre and the Augustus Long Hospital.

“People are admitted to hospital for various conditions and are treated while awaiting tests. If the tests come back positive, they will be moved.”

Technical director of epidemiology at the health ministry Dr Avery Hinds said the capacity of the clinical system is now at 38-39 per cent and the quarantine facilities being used for repatriation are at 50 per cent capacity.

He said statistics showed that covid19 deaths had mainly occurred in men in the over-60 bracket, but that did not mean that younger people were not at risk. He said the covid19 figures showed that the public health measures had taken some effect, but the next two weeks would show exactly what was happening.

He said there hasn’t been a higher-than-average incidence of pneumonia-related deaths in the last three years as opposed to the averages. He said this also applied to death by all causes.

Hinds said the increase in the number of people testing positive from the samples being taken showed the right people were being tested.

“We test through a contact web around positive cases, even though they may not be symptomatic. The increase in the pickup rate from testing shows the success of the testing.”