Arima hospital no longer for covid19 patients

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says from Monday the Arima hospital will begin the process of being decommissioned as a covid19 facility and other hospitals will soon follow.

At a press conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s on Saturday he said from Monday no new patients would be admitted and as patients get well, they would be discharged.

The Debe stepdown facility at the UWI Debe campus and the National Racquet Sports Centre in Tacarigua will also be decommissioned as stepdown facilities as equipment was being dismantled, removed, and the buildings cleaned.

The ministry also plans to pack up the field hospital at the Jean Pierre Complex.

“In case we need it in future, the plan is to remount it at Couva, if we need it. But right now both field hospitals have been empty for a while.”

The ministry would maintain UTT Valsayn as a national stepdown facility in case it is needed as well as the St James Hospital.

“The medium- to long-term plan is to treat covid19 in the public health care system in the same way we treat H1N1, with dedicated sites within the normal health care system. So unless something dramatic happens, there is no plan at this point in time, to take back these facilities and use them exclusively for covid.”

This as principal medical officer of health, Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards announced that, for the first time since April 2021, the country’s stepdown facilities are empty and have been so over the past ten days.

She said between mid-November 2021 to early January 2022, over 100 patients were being admitted to the system daily but from January 23 there had been a decrease in the net admission of patients meaning an increasing number of people were leaving than entering the parallel health care system.

She added that over the past six weeks all hospitals had been under 75 per cent capacity with Couva Hospital at 23 per cent occupancy on Saturday. Also on Saturday morning there were 173 patients in the hospitals compared to December when, one day, the hospitals were at 84 per cent occupancy with 755 patients.

She said the overall occupancy in the system was 22 per cent with the intensive care occupancy at 26 per cent, the high dependency unit occupancy at 13 per cent, and in the ten Accident and Emergency departments, no one needed ICU care.

In the accident and emergency department there were 28 patients compared to 215 patients on December 15 and 168 patients on December 23.

“The reality, ladies and gentlemen is that the situation in the parallel health care system is in stark contrast at this point as compared to November/December. On one date in November we were managing 923 patients across the 16 facilities in the system and the ten accident and Emergency Departments. On that date we recalled there was one ICU bed left in the country and we were trying our utmost best to ensure that all patients received the standard of care required for covid19.”

She said while TT was a positive situation compared to last year, people should continue to go to the hospital if sick, get vaccinated, and practice wearing masks, maintaining physical distance and washing their hands. . Buts asked people to continue to practice proven methods

In addition, Deyalsingh said parents of children ages five to 11 who wished them vaccinated against covid19 will soon be able to go to a public health facility to do so.

On Friday, in the House of Representatives, Deyalsingh announced the government of Spain offered TT a gift of 40,000 Pfizer paediatric vaccines. And, at Saturday's press conference, he said there was no firm date but the ministry was making arrangements to receive the vaccines

Also speaking at the press conference, the Prime Minister said, “We expect to be in a position to have vaccines for adults and for children on call. If you require to be vaccinated, the public health system should be able to vaccinate you.”

Dr Rowley previously indicated that if it was necessary to save the lives of children he would make vaccination against covid19 mandatory for attending primary school. He said while that proved to be unnecessary, vaccination was still recommended.

“That gift from Spain is welcomed because those vaccines are very expensive. We will use them up and if we see that there is a demand from the parents for those children and those 40,000 are used up, the ministry has already been instructed to be in a position to access more for greater usage if that is the position of the parents.”