Dr BYisrael: 18 cases at Scarborough hospital is an outbreak

PROGRESSIVE Democratic Patriots (PDP) deputy political leader Dr Faith BYisrael has called for the random covid19 testing of health workers as she insisted that there is an outbreak at the Scarborough Hospital.

Her call came following a statement on Thursday by the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development confirming a cluster of 18 covid19 cases at the hospital.

Newsday understands the spread started at the male medical ward and includes medical staff and patients.

The division has denied reports of a covid19 outbreak at the hospital.

It said covid19 clusters are fairly common in large organisations and medical facilities all around the world.

The division added there have been clusters of covid19 cases from time to time at some medical facilities in Tobago since the start of the pandemic.

It said the hospital is fully operational and remains unaffected.

At a news conference on Friday, BYisrael disagreed with the division’s assessment.

“Eighteen cases within the Tobago Health Authority is an outbreak,” she declared.

“It is an epidemic. It is a localised epidemic in a non-residential setting. So, you do have an outbreak.”

BYisrael said the fact that the division has reported clusters means it has lost control of the nosocomial infections in the hospital.

“If you are telling us that you have clusters happening in the hospital, this means you cannot pinpoint how these individuals have gotten infected. That means that your investigation mechanism is not working, your response mechanism is not working, your preventative mechanism is not working.”

BYisrael, a public health practitioner, said a policy to randomly test healthcare workers must be formulated.

“We need to ramp up testing immediately. Because we have such small numbers, we should have a policy to routinely test our health care workers.”

She added, “So, even though they don’t have symptoms or we don’t know that there is a cluster, we are able to quickly pick up that something is happening in our hospital.

“We should implement a system of routine sampling of the hospital for all of our health care professionals continually.”

BYisrael said although many people may not present with symptoms, they can still spread the virus.

“So, we have to ensure that we have a clear plan of routinely testing all of our health care professionals continually on a rotational basis.”

BYisrael said a policy must also be devised to ramp up testing for people who are to be admitted to wards at the hospital.

“Those individuals need to be tested for covid19 so that we know what we are dealing with within the health facility.”

In light of the development, she advised the division and the TRHA to identify clear plans and policies to ensure the operations of the hospital are not compromised.

At the division’s covid19 briefing on Thursday, covid19 response team member in the Office of the County Medical Officer of Health Dr Anthony Thompson said the situation was not being swept under the carpet.

“In terms of the notion that what is happening is being downplayed, I would strongly disagree,” he said.

Thompson said he is involved in some of the testing “and the urgency with which the teams were mobilised to test health care workers who came up to the green room, personally did not feel like the seriousness of the situation was being downplayed.”

He said it is always unfortunate when an employee gets infected with covid19 at the workplace.

“But we deal with this reality every day.”