SWRHA says Point Fortin psychiatric clinic not moving: Patients 'difficult to manage'

THE Southwest Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) says it cannot say when the Point Fortin psychiatric outpatient clinic will be moved to the new hospital building.

It said those who are “mentally challenged,” are “more difficult to manage,” and can now make use of the extra space at the old building, since all other departments have moved.

On Monday, the SWRHA announced that the hospital had fully “transitioned into the new, spacious building.” The Prime Minister opened the 100-bed $1.2 billion hospital last July.

The new building is at the corner of Techier Road and the Point Fortin Main Road. It offers services including general medicine, general surgery, a burns unit, psychiatry, paediatric/adolescence, high dependency and accident and emergency. Other services will include general x-ray, CT scans, general ultrasound, mammography, laboratory services and endoscopy.

The old building, which is yet to be decommissioned, is at Volunteer Road, Mahaica. On Thursday, patients of the psychiatric outpatient clinic were frustrated as they wandered between the two buildings to find their clinic. Several patients had told Newsday they had gone to the new building, only to be told the clinic was “still up the road.”

This is the only outpatient clinic to remain at the old building. The space in which the clinic is held has a few wooden benches and plastic chairs, along with chairs with ripped cushions. There is also a vending machine. There is no airconditioning in the room and many of the walls are either peeling or stained.

Speaking with Newsday on Friday, a SWRHA official who preferred not to be named said the clinic will “eventually be factored into and moved to the new hospital,” but it will not be anytime soon.

“When we had initially looked at the services to be moved, we decided that since the area hospital at Point Fortin is still has a slate of services it can offer and the facility is in a state where it could still accommodate patients, we would keep that clinic there.

“In the past few months, the psychiatric clinic has been expanding and when you look at the type of clientele, sometimes they would take a lot more effort to be managed. You realise there’s a larger space that is required for the psychiatric patients. Hence they now have the entire (old) facility to use.”

But when Newsday visited the clinic on Thursday, only the usual area was being used for the psychiatric clinic.

The official said, “Had we moved them at this time – because it’s a quite growing clientele – there’s a challenge managing the patients at a smaller hospital space. They would have to be confined, and a lot of them present unique challenges, so we would keep these valued patients at the old hospital.”