ADMINISTRATORS of Jamaica’s public hospitals have been instructed to confer with each other on matters pertaining to patient intake/transfers instead of sending out advisories to the public that may be misconstrued.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said this was his directive to these institutions following last Thursday’s notification to the public by the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) of a temporary suspension on accepting patient transfers due to a significant increase in the number of patients in its emergency room.

In the release, the UHWI said that 90 per cent of those patients were presenting with complications from chronic non-communicable diseases, and as a result, its emergency room had reached full capacity.

“The UHWI requests that all private and public hospitals, as well as nursing homes, retain stable patients until the situation improves. The hospital continues to provide care for emergency cases and will accept critically ill patients who require immediate attention, transferring them directly to the critical care unit as needed,” the hospital said.

Speaking at a virtual press conference on Thursday, Dr Tufton said that he was concerned when he saw the media release as it may have created the impression that the hospital was not taking referrals at all.

“This is not the case, when I spoke to the chief executive officer [Fitzgerald Mitchell] and the head of the medical team [Dr Karl Bruce], they are taking referrals depending on the nature of the particular case and the release gave the impression that they were not.

“So yes, they are under pressure as I understand it, but depending on the case, and the need to have the experts there deal with a particular case that only them alone can deal with, those referrals are being accepted,” said Tufton.

“What I had advised them to do is to coordinate with the hospitals as opposed to the general public because it appears to me that the matter may better be handled by institutions talking to institutions rather than putting something out in the wider public that may create the wrong impression or even uncertainty, fear, or even panic. And I think some of those discussions are taking place,” added Tufton.

He said it is understandable that the hospital system is now under pressure which is a cyclical scenario where at a particular point in time, there is an increased demand on the system.

“The UHWI [which] is the only regional institution that provides training and therefore has in its human resource capacity some of the highest levels of training…for young doctors, will see demand on its services, perhaps beyond other institutions, because of the nature of the institution, and the level and numbers of experts that they have.

“So from time to time, as a normal course, referrals are made from other institutions across the country because the UHWI is the only institution that may be able to provide that kind of combined levels of service because of the experts that are there.” Tufton explained.

He added: “Depending on what is happening in the country at any point in time where you have outlier events, whether it is man-made or natural, that institution will come under increasing pressure and referrals will become a lot more than normal.

“My understanding is that they are going through that process now where they are being asked to take patients from other institutions separate and apart from their normal course of activity, where people can turn up at the accident and emergency (A&E) unit and they have to be managing that in a way that allows the priority cases to be seen and where those referrals may not be necessary then they revert to the original institution to treat with those patients.”

In the meantime, Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie noted that closer to the end of the year hospitals tend to have higher numbers of patients.

She said there are increased respiratory cases, trauma, and an increase in the number of persons presenting with complications of non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension.