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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Point Fortin hospital added to parallel healthcare system

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1520 days ago
20210522
POINT FORTIN HOSPITAL

POINT FORTIN HOSPITAL

RISHI RAGOONATH

rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt

The re­cent­ly opened Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal has been re­des­ig­nat­ed as a COVID-19 man­age­ment fa­cil­i­ty but res­i­dents with­in the near­by com­mu­ni­ty said they would now be in­con­ve­nienced. 

The South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (SWRHA) said in a re­lease yes­ter­day that those who “re­quire Emer­gency Ser­vices (Ac­ci­dent & Emer­gency) are re­quest­ed to vis­it the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (SFGH) or Siparia Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty (SD­HF) Emer­gency De­part­ments.”

It said all pa­tients at the fa­cil­i­ty will be trans­ferred to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal while the area hos­pi­tal re­mains a COVID-19 step-down fa­cil­i­ty.

Be­cause of the change, it said the Point Fortin Health Cen­tre ser­vice hours have been ex­tend­ed to 8 am to 8 pm dai­ly and would con­tin­ue vac­ci­na­tions based on ap­point­ments. 

The hos­pi­tal was opened in Ju­ly 2020 with a bed ca­pac­i­ty of 100. How­ev­er, with both hos­pi­tals now be­ing out of com­mis­sion for those in Trinidad’s South West­ern penin­su­la, some are up­set. 

“They now build the hos­pi­tal for peo­ple who like Ce­dros...all these places and them con­vert­ing that to the COVID hos­pi­tal,” Point Fortin res­i­dent Stead­man Jef­frey told Guardian Me­dia dur­ing a vis­it to the area yes­ter­day.

“You have the new hos­pi­tal (for) COVID and then they hav­ing the old hos­pi­tal they say is (for) COVID too. What go hap­pen to we if I have a headache or my foot get bro­ken...which part we have to go? Up San Fer­nan­do? And then when we call they ain’t have no am­bu­lance? It kind of dis­gust­ing.”

His neigh­bour, Lester Odith had a sim­i­lar con­cern. 

“I don’t know why they do this. I find they shouldn’t close it down. They should keep it how it run­ning be­fore be­cause it have old peo­ple out­side here get­ting sick and how (at) that age they go­ing to trav­el to San­do to go San­do hos­pi­tal?” he said.

“San­do hos­pi­tal ain’t ram-cram too?”

But some be­lieved the in­con­ve­nience was nec­es­sary like La Brea res­i­dent Sharon Dil­lon.

“If they have to turn it in­to the COVID hos­pi­tal well they have to treat the pa­tients and get them bet­ter and get them well,” she said.

An­oth­er La Brea res­i­dent, John Fred­er­ick, vis­it­ed the hos­pi­tal to col­lect the re­sults of a scan while Guardian Me­dia was there.

How­ev­er, he was turned away by se­cu­ri­ty on the site be­cause of the changeover.

When asked how he felt about the con­ver­sion he said: “That’s the price for our com­pla­cen­cy. It’s sad that this new fa­cil­i­ty had to be trans­ferred for COVID. But I mean, it’s nec­es­sary. It’s a re­sult of our slack­ness.”


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