MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Mandeville Regional Hospital is bursting at its seams as it fills the gap left by the reduced services offered at a number of health facilities ravaged by Hurricane Melissa on October 28.

The hospital is now operating beyond its established capacity and Chief Executive Officer Alwyn Miller is urging Jamaicans to follow recommended safety measures while embarking on rebuilding efforts in south-western Jamaica.

“A lot of houses and buildings have been damaged by the hurricane and persons are in the process of doing repairs and whether you are an expert contractor, construction worker, or you are a regular member of the public who is trying to do repairs, we ask you to exercise utmost caution in doing such to minimise falls from roof, ladders, or any other such injuries that can come from doing construction repairs,” Miller said in an appeal through the
Jamaica Observer on Monday.

“This is not a time to be frivolous and to sustain any sort of injury that may require hospital admission, so we ask the public to help us in this regard,” added Miller.

He also urged people who are diabetic and hypertensive to take their medication to minimise the need for hospitalisation.

“We want to ask those who use our roadways to also exercise caution and try not to become a victim of a motor vehicle accident and end up having to be admitted or [require] surgery. We have had a significant [number] of those patients and our orthopedic ward is also full,” said Miller as he pointed out that the hospital has seen numerous admissions from western parishes amid the devastation to other hospitals.

“Since the passing of Melissa the Mandeville Regional Hospital has been required to receive patients who were then admitted to the Black River Hospital. Approximately 67 patients were transferred to us from Black River including social cases. We have since discharged most of those patients. We have approximately 15 from the original group of patients who were transferred to us.

“However, we have since then seen patients coming to us not only from St Elizabeth, but most of western Jamaica from as far as Savanna-la-Mar, southern St James, southern Trelawny, and southern St Ann. Patients are coming from all these areas to the Mandeville Regional Hospital and this has caused our admissions to be approximately 45 per cent over what our normal bed complement would be, which is 226. Most days we have 320-plus patients admitted in the hospital,” added Miller.

The CEO told the
Observer that the hospital is no longer in emergency mode despite having full wards.

“We have resumed elective surgeries and this is very important, because we do not want our patients to deteriorate. Therefore, we want to have as early an intervention as we can and we are especially focusing on those urgent patients [including] patients with cancers and other such illnesses,” he said.

“Our maternity ward is full to capacity and we have a lot of postnatal babies. Most days in excess of 30 postnatal babies,” Miller pointed out.

He expressed gratitude to voluntary groups who have responded to the needs of the hospital and its patients.

“We are operating above capacity at this time, but we are thankful for the assistance that we have received from various partners… International Medical Corps and volunteers from the Ministry of Health of Israel and both teams have been absolutely wonderful in helping us to respond to the pressure that is presented post-Hurricane Melissa.

“We have had staff members from Black River who have been reassigned to assist during this period. Our staff is working very hard to try and take care of the patients despite the significant numbers,” added Miller.

a

MILLER… this is not the time to be frivolous and to sustain any sort of injury that may require hospital admission.