MONTEGO BAY, St James — Medical staff at Cornwall Regional Hospital’s Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department dismantled their picket line on Friday after receiving assurances, with action timelines, from administrators and the health and wellness minister that steps are being taken to resolve poor working conditions.

“I have been talking to the team there; the challenge is the overcrowding, primarily, and it is being amplified by the renovation/reconstruction of the damaged parts of the facilities, which is inconveniencing and crowding out the sections we are using because of the restrictions on space that are being renovated,” Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton told the Jamaica Observer.

He said the problem has been compounded by a spike in respiratory illnesses now being recorded across the island, and the damage done by Hurricane Melissa which slammed into south- and north-western parishes on October 28, 2025.

“Generally this time of year, with the flu and other kinds of respiratory ailments, you do have a spike in [visits to] the A&Es; Mandeville Regional Hospital has a challenge, Bustamante [Hospital for Children] and others. In the case of Cornwall, it would have been amplified by the repair works that are taking place,” said Tufton who conceded that staff at the hospital are working under challenging conditions..

“The work is actively taking place. I’ve been told that one of the contractors indicated that by next week one ward will be back up and running,” added Tufton shortly after medical staff demonstrated to highlight the challenges they face daily at the facility and the negative impact these issues are having on patients.

According to the staff, they are fed up with limited space, having to place patients on beds on the floor, rodent infestation, and other challenges.

Armed with placards and chanting a litany of woes, the medical personnel said they decided enough was enough.

“We’re here today because we are having some serious concerns here at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, especially in the Accident and Emergency Department,” nursing representative for St James Lattar Burke told journalists.

“The nurses are very distraught, their health is at risk, the patients are also at risk, and we cannot take it anymore,” declared Burke.

She painted a picture of a potential disaster waiting to happen as she highlighted the challenges medical staff face in the daily execution of their duties.

“There is overcrowding, there are currently more than 100 patients in the area and it’s supposed to house maybe about 35,” explained Burke.

“My nurses have to code patients — that is to provide resuscitation care — on the floor. That is inhumane and at this time the nurses just cannot take any more. We even have some rodent infestation,” lamented Burke, who pointed out that, despite the protest, some medical staff remained on the job to keep the A&E Department functioning.

“There are nurses manning the unit because patient care comes first, but we still have to take the necessary measures to get these issues addressed,” she added.

One doctor, who asked not to be named, also expressed disquiet with the conditions as she charged that patients face crisis situations when they seek care at the only Type A facility in the western region.

“I don’t understand the politics, because when the health minister coming you see cleaning start the day before. What is the politics in it that you can’t allow the people to see that the place is not good?” the obviously frustrated doctor asked.

“One time a patient tell them she not getting up. [She said], ‘I’m going to lie down right here, him have to see me down here so.’ You picking up the patient that is sleeping on the floor because they get frustrated, they don’t have nowhere to lay down, so them end up lying on the floor, it look like a shelter,” lamented the doctor.

She told journalists that the A&E Department is now placing patients on beach chairs as there are not enough beds for them.

“The patients are sitting in the chair for so long that they are grateful for the bed [when they get one]. It is like a hotel beach accident and emergency,” said the doctor, who pointed out that the overcrowding is also impacting medical workers.

“The other day a nurse just turn around with the needle and the pregnant physiotherapist was passing by and got stuck by the needle, unintentionally, because there is no space,” the doctor stated.

“When we use a needle we have to walk with it in the air because we don’t want anybody who is passing by to get stuck,” she added.

As the protest took shape and the nurses and doctors aired grouses, one patient, Dominic Prince, a resident of St Vincent and the Grenadines, told the media that the situation is dire.

“Nobody is supposed to live like that, nobody; I don’t care what nobody want to say. Sit down on a chair from yesterday and they still want me to stay back. I had to sign myself out, I can’t live like that. I am a human being, not a dog,” declared the angry patient.

The protesting staff members were called into a meeting by the hospital’s management to discuss the matter and to determine the way forward. With assurances that action would be taken, the staff returned to work.

During a media briefing that followed, Clinical Coordinator Dr Delroy Fray gave timelines for when results would be seen.

“Within the next two weeks, we’re gonna get what’s called a dome that can house somewhere between 100 and 150 beds, and that is going to add to the capacity that we are establishing. So I’m just gonna ask the staff, ‘Bear with us a little.’ I know that it is tough. We are working hard, and we are working that within this time frame, if we can establish that 150 and re-establish our 350 [beds] we should be in a good state, to level off things,” he appealed.

Hospital CEO Charmaine Williams Beckford gave an assurance that staff would be given regular updates on progress being made.

“We are expecting to see movement within one to three weeks; we are expecting to see changes in the work that will help us to move patients to beds and on the wards. We will be providing them with those updates because they’re in Accident and Emergency, they are fully engaged and may not be able to see the spaces regularly. So we will be updating them regularly and ensuring that they are aware of what it is that we are doing,” she told the media.

Parish manager for St James public health services, Lennox Wallace, also outlined a plan to tackle the rodent problem.

He explained that, while he is satisfied with the quality and frequency of garbage collection at CRH, there is a wider waste collection issue within the Mount Salem community and that affects the hospital.

“Come the 23rd and 24th we’ll be in the Mount Salem space removing all bulky waste, all garbage that has been accumulated over the last two months to ensure that this facility and other areas within the Mount Salem community are clean,” Wallace said.

The work will fall under an ongoing $50-million rodent control project for St James.

“We’ll be baiting; this programme will continue for six months, so we’re not just going to bait and leave. We’ll ensure that if we need to go back and rebait, remove garbage, remove bulk waste, that will be done, because we want to ensure that Cornwall Regional Hospital remains a safe space, our hard-working nurses and doctors and other employees remain in a safe space to continue to work, and to deliver the excellent service that they have always been doing,” said Wallace.

Nurse Lattar Baker explaining why the medical staff at Cornwall Regional Hospital’s A&E Department decided to take protest action on Friday.

St Vincent and the Grenadines resident Dominic Prince says he checked himself out of Cornwall Regional Hospital because of the deplorable conditions there.