AFTER a sick-out on Thursday over discrepancies with their contracts junior doctors were back at work yesterday having struck a deal with the Ministry of Health and Wellness, and operations at numerous health facilities returned to normal, but administrators are now consumed with hurricane plans.

With the novel coronavirus pandemic and other patient issues already exhausting the resources of some hospitals, the health ministry and administrators are now figuring out the appropriate responses to disaster with a hurricane warning now being in effect for Jamaica.

The Metereological Service said last night that Hurricane Elsa is moving quickly across the eastern Caribbean Sea, which means that dangerous effects of a hurricane are expected to affect Jamaica in 36 hours or less.

Bucknell Stewart, the chief executive officer for Kingston Public Hospital, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that he is anticipating a surge in patients.

“We are back to normal operations and we would like to thank the ministry for their response in negotiating, and we are grateful. However, we have one down. We are now preparing for the hurricane surge, if there will be any negative impact. That’s our next challenge and that is what we are looking at now,” Stewart said.

Chief executive officer of Spanish Town Hospital Dwayne Francis also expressed gratitude to the ministry for listening to the junior doctors’ cries and bringing to an end their frustration. He pointed out that the hospital has been putting plans in place for the hurricane season, but highlighted that even with preparation, things can still go wrong.

“We have been doing our internal preparations, but even with the best of preparation, things can still go south. The hospital has been doing the preparation and we will continue to ensure that we are in the best state possible.

“We, too, have resumed normal operations. All of our doctors are here today. Some doctors would have had official day off while some persons had called in sick,” he said.

Amid the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, director of emergency disaster management and special services in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Dr Nicole Dawkins-Wright said every aspect of operation at the medical facilities is a major concern. In case the health system becomes overburdened during a hurricane, individuals will be on standby to assist with filling in the gaps, she told the Observer.

“Whilst we are managing this pandemic, everything is a major concern. At this point in time, as I said, we would have made preparation should in case we have to deal with the COVID situation as well as any fallout from effects related to a storm. Up to today [Friday] we would have had another focus, looking at our capacity to handle it. We expect landfall by Sunday, as projected by the meteorological office, and we would have evaluated our preparations capacity in terms of where we are.

“We do have standard operating procedures, should there be something that causes us to adjust. There are persons who are on standby and are ready to be mobilised. We do have other protocols related to our supplies management, in terms of how we staff the different facilities and position our supplies. Those are a standard part of our preparation, certainly, at the beginning of the hurricane season, and we maintain in that state of preparation for the rest of the year.

“We have over 300 health facilities across the country. As part of our disaster risk, we would have implemented a disaster risk programme that looks at evaluating the fitness of the facilities in terms of structural elements and non-structural elements,” she told the Observer yesterday.