The Ministry of Health is reportedly now scrambling to have all patients evacuated from the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay by the end of the week, as conditions at the problem-plagued health facility worsen.
Junior Doctors stayed off the job in protest on Tuesday, further crippling operations at the multi-disciplinary facility, where air quality issues and other conditions have been a major headache for the Ministry since last year.
Senior Doctors who were manning operations were said to be buckling under the pressure of the workload.
In an exclusive interview with a senior resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, it was revealed that a number of doctors have fallen ill due to exposure to fumes, while a Cuban doctor who fell ill opted to return home for treatment, but later died there.
According to our highly-placed source, the protest action was a direct call on the Ministry of Health to acknowledge that something is radically wrong at the hospital’s main building.
A massive multi-million dollar rehabilitation project, now underway at the hospital, is intended to relocate all patients from the facility, with work being done at the Nurses Quadrant, which already houses several departments of the hospital, including the seventh to tenth floors, ultrasound centre, and Matrons offices. The customer care and security headquarters are also being prepared to house a delivery suite and nursery.
Surgical patients are to be housed at a previously unused ward at Falmouth Hospital, which has been refurbished.
It is also understood that advanced preparations are being made to relocate the operating theatre and antenatal wards, which remain on the main building as the air quality situation worsens.
The ambitious plan by Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton to have rehabilitation of the hospital complete in November was shot down by the senior resident:
“That is simply not possible. There is too much work to be done to have all competed and ready in that short space of time. It would take a two-year span to have the hospital ready”.