Abdool-Richards: Covid19 hospital occupancy trends 'encouraging'

Principal Medical Officer Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards has said there have been encouraging trends in hospital occupancy over the last month in the parallel health care system. She said overall occupancy nationally is at 22 per cent.

“All hospitals are at under 30 per cent occupancy, with three out of ten beds at each hospital being fully occupied. At ward level, occupancy is 22 per cent, in intensive care units (ICU) occupancy is 26 per cent, with 21 of 80 beds being occupied, and high-dependency unit occupancy is 13 per cent. There are 159 patients in hospital, with 16 accessing the step-down level of care.”

Speaking at the health ministry’s virtual media conference on covid19 on Wednesday, Abdool-Richards said there had also been a decline in the number of patients in accident and emergency (A&E) departments waiting for transfer to the parallel health care system. There are 15 patients being treated for covid19 in ten A&E departments nationwide and she said the current rolling average for covid19 ambulance usage is 15 per cent.

The last time the numbers were at these levels were in April 2021, before the spike in cases.

Abdool-Richards also said the Point Fortin Area Hospital will be upgraded from a step-down facility in the parallel health care system for covid19 and will now be designated as a hospital facility within the system.

This measure follows the return of the new Point Fortin Hospital to the mainstream public health care system.

“The area hospital has now been upgraded to treat moderately and severely ill patients, so patients in the Area Hospital, Point Fortin, are now being treated with oxygen and for more serious cases of covid19.

"As of this afternoon, and on our dashboard, the Area Hospital, Point Fortin, will now be classified under 'hospitals' as opposed to 'step-down facilities.' This follows the Prime Minister’s announcement that we will be consolidating the parallel health care system as we attempt to return to normalcy.”

Abdool-Richards said any further decommissioning of step-down and hospital facilities would be announced by the Health Minister, and occupancy continues to be reviewed.

Epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds said the levels of illness presenting to the covid19 health care system were decreasing. The current seven-day rolling average in the number of cases is 312, he said, and percentage positivity was now in the low 30 per cent range.

Asked what the health team thought about the Prime Minister’s announcement that he was contemplating opening up the country, Hinds said any comments would be pre-emptive and premature until the PM met with the Health Ministry.