Health Ministry Taking Steps to Ease Patient Surge at Mandeville Regional Hospital

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, has announced a comprehensive recovery plan to address the spike in patient numbers at the Mandeville Regional Hospital.

It focuses on infrastructure expansion, staff augmentation, and the restoration of primary healthcare services.

“Mandeville Regional Hospital is seeing a spike in the number of patients beyond what they are accustomed to. The figures that I saw [on January 22]… were up to 78 per cent above capacity in terms of inpatient care and 50 per cent in terms of outpatient care,” he noted during a tour of the Manchester-based facility on January 23.

Dr. Tufton explained that the hospital has approximately 250 beds for inpatient care; however, it was accommodating up to 360 admitted patients.

“The logical impact of that is that people are in makeshift areas within the compound of the hospital being treated by the doctors,” the Minister disclosed.

He pointed out that the high patient load is unlikely to decrease for several weeks, as Hurricane Melissa’s passage and the damage to neighbouring hospitals from the Category Five cyclone have caused major disruptions in the public health sector.

“People are coming from St. Elizabeth. They are coming from Trelawny, because Falmouth [Hospital] is under stress… so they come home to the hills. [Also from] Westmoreland, in some instances, and there are other parishes that I have heard of. So, what we have is Mandeville Regional is seen as the rescue centre for a number of parishes and populations, which has led to where we are,” Dr. Tufton explained.

He said to alleviate the pressure, the Government is implementing several immediate interventions.

“There’s a facility that is being built to house an additional 30 to 40 or so patients. Then there is the coordination between the staff at Black River Hospital and here (Mandeville regional Hospital), which has seen some of the staff from Black River being deployed here to assist and to bolster the response of the teams that are treating the additional patients here,” the Health Minister outlined.

He also noted that additional nurses and doctors will be added to the cadre at the hospital to help alleviate the challenges currently being faced.

Highlighting that part of the increased patient load stems from a decline in persons accessing primary healthcare at their local clinics, Dr. Tufton noted that focus will be placed on rectifying this.

“We have to get [personnel in] the primary health care system to be more vigilant out in the field, to do more home visits, to encourage Jamaicans to visit their health centres… maybe to adjust some of the opening hours to give more time. All of those are a very important part of just taking a holistic approach,” Dr. Tufton emphasised.

He pointed out that the surge in patients at facilities such as Mandeville Regional is expected to continue until about March, when renovation and rebuilding works at the Black River and Falmouth Hospitals are scheduled for completion.

“So, we do expect a tapering off… [around] February into March because we will have more beds, more doctors and nurses, more primary healthcare facilities being serviced, and Mandeville Regional, hopefully, will return to normality. But it is going to be a challenge over the next number of weeks, and I think it is important to say that to the public so that we can all play the part that we have to play,” the Minister stated.

Dr. Tufton appealed to citizens to follow their prescribed medication regime, protect themselves against unnecessary complications, and, where possible, visit their health centres first.

“Don’t come to the hospital if you don’t have to. Citizens must understand that if they come to the hospital and it’s not absolutely necessary, they’re going to have to wait, and they [may have to] wait a long time, because you have to deal with the life-saving procedures first,” the Minister stated.