RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

South­west Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (SWRHA) chair­man Anil Go­sine says the au­thor­i­ty has be­gun re­cruit­ing 40 new nurs­es as part of plans to re­open the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal and to main­tain ex­tend­ed pa­tient ser­vices in out­ly­ing com­mu­ni­ties like Ce­dros and Moru­ga.

Speak­ing at the SWRHA’s pub­lic board meet­ing at SAPA on Tues­day, Go­sine said even though the au­thor­i­ty had a re­duc­tion in al­lo­ca­tion, it has been work­ing to im­prove ser­vices and staffing.

“We have re­cent­ly in­ter­viewed 40 nurs­es; we’re bring­ing on that many, and the in­tent is to in­ter­view more and bring those on as well over the next cou­ple of months,” he said.

He added, “These 40 nurs­es who are be­ing hired, the min­istry has al­ready told us they’re pro­vid­ing the fund­ing first to en­sure that it hap­pens.”

He al­so said that a track­ing sys­tem will be put in place to en­sure that valu­able equip­ment does not go miss­ing from the hos­pi­tals.

His com­ments came af­ter pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Nurs­ing As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (NNATT), Idi Stu­art, ques­tioned how the SWRHA is bal­anc­ing these ex­pand­ed re­spon­si­bil­i­ties with re­duced al­lo­ca­tions.

“I know there’s a drop in re­cur­rent fund­ing… I am re­al­ly cu­ri­ous how the au­thor­i­ty is go­ing to bal­ance an in­crease in ser­vices with a drop in ex­pen­di­ture,” he said.

Stu­art al­so raised con­cerns about re­duced out­pa­tient clin­ic vis­its de­spite ex­tend­ed clin­ic hours.

“I paid close at­ten­tion to the sta­tis­tics re­gard­ing a drop in out­pa­tient clin­ic vis­its. That was a con­cern for the as­so­ci­a­tion.

“It con­flicts with a num­ber of oth­er sta­tis­tics… there has been an in­crease in op­er­at­ing hours from 8 am to 8 pm at the clin­ics, yet there’s a de­crease in vis­its.”

He al­so ques­tioned the im­pact of mov­ing sur­gi­cal the­atre nurs­es to Cou­va.

“Is it not com­pro­mis­ing the num­ber of surg­eries that can be done at San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal or the Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal?” Stu­art asked.

But Go­sine said the fa­cil­i­ty re­mains un­der the Min­istry of Health.

“We are not the RHA that is run­ning it. It has been un­der the Min­istry of Health. If we have 15 nurs­es there, it is a lot,” he said, not­ing that sur­gi­cal ser­vices are be­ing phased in.

Go­sine said ex­tend­ed-hours ser­vices con­tin­ue in Ce­dros and Moru­ga be­cause of the lo­ca­tions in­volved.

“Two of the ex­tend­ed-hours sites are at Moru­ga and Ce­dros be­cause of the lo­ca­tions. Some­times you may not get large num­bers, but those who come re­al­ly need the med­ical at­ten­tion,” he said.

Mean­while, a mem­ber of the pub­lic, Cooralal Ram­per­sad, raised is­sues about re­fer­rals to pri­vate in­sti­tu­tions.

“How many of those pa­tients were re­ferred to pri­vate health fa­cil­i­ties? How many tests were re­ferred to pri­vate in­sti­tu­tions?” he asked.

He al­so not­ed re­cent im­prove­ments at the urol­o­gy clin­ic.

In re­sponse, act­ing CEO Dr Robin Sinanan said peo­ple should not be re­ferred to pri­vate hos­pi­tals when be­ing treat­ed at pub­lic hos­pi­tals.

“Once there’s a ser­vice avail­able in the pub­lic sec­tor, you should not be re­ferred to a pri­vate fa­cil­i­ty un­less the pa­tient or the rel­a­tive choos­es to go,” he said.

On equip­ment mon­i­tor­ing, he said the TMA sys­tem will be ful­ly im­ple­ment­ed to track re­pairs and main­te­nance.

He al­so at­trib­uted the re­duc­tion in out­pa­tient clin­ic traf­fic to spe­cial­ist doc­tors hold­ing more clin­ics in com­mu­ni­ty set­tings.

Dr Singh said bounce-back rates for ear­ly dis­charges are be­ing mon­i­tored as part of in­pa­tient care re­views.