Faulty air-conditioning (AC) units at Spanish Town Hospital are making life unbearable and posing a health risk to staff and patients, according to a worker. However, Errol Greene, the South East Regional Health Authority’s regional director, told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday that the problem is being dealt with.

“That matter is being addressed. An air-conditioning unit, particularly for the size that is malfunctioning, is not something you can go out and buy. It is something that has to be ordered and might take a little time to come. It is being given the highest priority,” said Greene.

The worker, who spoke to the Observer on condition of anonymity on Tuesday, described the situation, especially in the main operating theatre.

“You have to be wiping or mopping the vent that lies over the operating table before surgical procedures start. When the porters mop the floor, and after four or five hours, you know there will be condensation again. You have to be moving the trollies, which are difficult to move. So you have to be moving them from the dirty water from the AC which drops on sterilised instruments and also on the patients during surgery,” he claimed.

He also complained about heat in the maternity ward.

“Imagine a midwife in the delivery suite, delivering a baby in that level of heat. The area is prone to infection. When you go down by the maternity area, as you walk through they have to open the big double-door, which is supposed to be closed. That makes the area prone for flies, as flies can come from outside and straight in the operating theatre,” he said.

“The theatres are hot, surgeons are operating and they are sweating and it’s like the norm. No matter how you talk to infection control personnel about it, nothing is being done,” he charged.

The worker said written reports on the problem have been produced and alleged that in March when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and his wife Catherine visited the hospital the doors of the maternity ward were repaired.

“They didn’t want them [the duke and duchess] to see the conditions, and yet still theatre doors cannot be fixed and the AC cannot be fixed,” he said.

“If we are to become a type A institution soon, we have to start doing the right thing. It nuh mek sense yuh wait till the horse gone through the gate before they come and do what they have to do,” the worker added.

Responding to the claims made by the staff member, the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Jacqueline Ellis said repairs of the AC units have been ongoing since last September. However, she acknowledged that the repairs offer a temporary solution, as the entire central AC system in the maternity suite has to be changed.

“What we wanted to do is to try and keep it [repairs] up, even though we have to change out the entire central system. But we were trying to keep it up while we do that activity but it was just not working out. So, what I did was put some fans in the space. The entire central system over by the maternity suite will have to be changed. We are working on it and it is going to take us some time,” she said.

“I know for the operating theatre, we definitely will have to put in split units temporarily in the event that one goes down because that is our back-up plan. But as it relates to the labour ward, it is a wide space with different cubicles for delivery and a split unit can’t ever work in there. While I understand their concern, we are working aggressively because it is a challenge. But some things cannot be fixed overtime and we have to do that activity and do it properly,” she explained.