MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Medical records staff at the Mandeville Regional Hospital (MRH) staged a protest in front of the institution on Caledonia Road today.

“They are protesting primarily against the improper working conditions. There is not enough storage (space) for the files. Files are all over the floor. Because of the number of boxes it can’t   be cleaned properly. This has made the area dusty,” said Saint Patrice Ennis, General Secretary for the Union of Technical Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP).

Ennis added that the staff does not have a facility to have meals and as a result, the working area that has become an eating area has attracted rats and roaches.

When Chief Executive Officer at the hospital Alwyn Miller was contacted, he expressed regret at the situation.

“It is a matter that we are aware of and the directorate of the region. It is a work in progress to try and find a solution. We are doing the work to put things in place but we have to do it in the most affordable way. It is a tidy sum. I can understand their impatience,” he said.

He said that the hospital continued to see outpatients, the wards were operating and the Accident and Emergency Department had been scaled down to assist priority the most urgent patients.

Miller said that an emergency team has been put in place to retrieve the medical records.

In the meantime, Ennis said at the heart of the recent protest was a failure by Miller to honour a promise to provide another container by November as a temporary solution to accommodate some of the files.

He added that currently the staff needed more chairs in the department and also contending with the inconvenience of an overflowing sewage manhole and no air conditioning.

“The workers are saying enough is enough. They are not prepared to continue like that. If the situation continues we are going to have frequent disruption of work in the medical records department,” he said.