MANCHESTER, Jamaica— Mandeville Regional Hospital (MRH) on Sunday night received some much-needed emergency supplies from Lashings Hotel in Treasure Beach following a plea from the hospital’s CEO for assistance from the local tourism sector.

According to a release from the hotel, sheets, towels, beds, water, toilet roll, napkins and hot food for staff and patients, were donated to the hospital.

Lashings owner David Folb said: “We have taken two trucks full so far and are now waiting for other guests houses and business to drop more stuff to take up there too. The people who are working up in these hospitals are heroes, so we are also taking pizzas for them, as well as for patients who have not got food.”

The plea for help came following news that staff had resorted to placing some patients on mattresses and makeshift beds.

“I want to thank everyone who has donated and dropped items to us at Lashings. Also big thanks to all the staff at Mandeville Hospital who are working around the clock. The kindness of some people is mind blowing. Treasure Beach is a truly wonderful community when we all help like this,” Folb said.

The delivery followed a plea for help from the tourism sector for spare beds to be used in triage areas where patients are awaiting transfer to the wards.

MRH’s CEO Alwyn Miller reached out to the Treasure Beach stakeholders in a WhatsApp message, which read: “I urgently need your help in getting some used lounge chairs from the hotel sector to be used to accommodate Covid patients in our triage areas awaiting transfer to the wards. Our five hospitals could use some. Between 10 – 15 each but any at all will be of help.”

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer, Miller said that COVID-19 triage patients were being accommodated in a tent, but recent bad weather has meant they were moved indoors.

A photo also began circulationg on social media purporting to be in the hospital’s outpatient department, where patients were seen lying on floors.

“We had a situation on Friday evening where we had 21 patients that were between the tent and the A&E department. It is not practical for us to keep them in the A&E department and the tent, because we recognised that more people are coming in and when they come in, we have to triage them under the tent, so we have to make the space,” Miller told the Observer.

“We provided mattresses for them to lie on… That is a holding space prior to them being moved to the isolation ward when the space becomes available,” he said.