Pt Fortin psychiatric outpatient clinic returns to hospital

The Point Fortin psychiatric outpatient clinic has temporarily been moved back to the (old) Point Fortin Area Hospital.

Staff and patients complained when it was moved to a dirty prefabricated container.

After the new hospital was opened, this was the only clinic and service to remain at the old building, although the new building has a psychiatric ward.

When Newsday asked why the clinic was not being moved, a senior South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) official said, “Mentally challenged patients are more difficult to manage.”

The old (area) hospital is now a covid19 step-down facility. This was why the twice-monthly psychiatric clinic was temporarily moved to the container in the grounds of the Point Fortin Extended Care Centre at Warden Road.

Boxes of patient files were dumped on a dirty floor and staff were told there was a rodent infestation. It is also surrounded by very tall grass and the waiting area is a small corridor.

Staff and patients said they felt neglected and asked the SWRHA to place them elsewhere, which Newsday highlighted.

In a press release on Wednesday, the SWRHA said the clinic will be at the area hospital once more from July 1 "until further notice.

Asked by Newsday how the arrangement will work, since the hospital now houses covid19 patients, SWRHA CEO Dr Brian Armour said, "The part of the area hospital being used to manage covid19 patients is just one part of a fairly large property plan, so therefore, there is a totally distinct area for entrance and exit. And certainly the appropriate signage and so forth will be there.

"So that is a totally separate part of the hospital that will not at all be related to where the active 'hot zone' area is."

He was responding to questions from the media at the Health Ministry's virtual press conference on Wednesday morning.