NCRHA to urgently audit clinic appointments

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) will be doing an immediate audit of all medical and surgical outpatient clinic appointments.

Responding to an urgent question in the Senate on Tuesday, Deyalsingh said the action was taken after an emergency meeting between the authority’s board and its executive management.

“In addition, we are strengthening our telemedicine initiative to assess and triage patients, determining their need and urgency for care. We have already instituted a pharmacy pickup collection initiative, to be established for stable patients requiring refilling of prescriptions.

“We are reviewing the appointment system and have done an operations review of the clinic management process with a view of increasing efficiency, through-put and patient comfort. This is a very fine balancing act while maintaining all covid19 protocols, guidelines and public health measures to mitigate risks to patients and staff.”

When asked by Opposition Senator Anil Roberts why this meeting was not held earlier, Deyalsingh said the review had been going on for a while.

“The recent urgency prompted me to get the board involved and to hold the executive management of the RHA to account.”