By Chantalé Fletcher
PRINCIPAL Medical Officer of Institutions Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards says there is a high percentage of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and High Dependency Care (HDU) patients in the parallel healthcare system.
She was speaking at the Ministry of Health virtual presser on Monday.
Dr Abdool-Richards said that although there was a decrease in the occupancy levels, the ICU levels remained high.
The PMO said, “As of this morning, there were 83% of ICU beds that are operations were filled while in Tobago, all fiver ICU beds at this time were also filled.”
She distinguished that HDU patients are critically ill while ICU patients are severely ill whereby the resources that are required to manage these two categories of patients were much more than a ward-level patient.
“Ventilators are needed, special beds, dialysis units and so on,” Dr Abdool-Richards said.
She said that in Trinidad and Tobago 85% of beds were filled.
The Primary Medical Officer said that beds can be transitioned from a ward level to HDU level but these statistics demonstrate the clinical severity of this virus.
“That is why we continue to see very critically and severely ill patients at our hospitals requiring additional resources,” she added.
Dr Abdool-Richards said that the HDU was a level between ward patients and ICU patients continued to fluctuate and at this morning showed 56%. However, she also added that the average since May 28 was 83%.
She said in an 8am update, “The overall occupancy of the parallel healthcare system was 41%.
“The overall capacity of the healthcare system is 1,022 beds which is spread across three levels of care in the hospitals.”
Dr Abdool-Richards said, “We have noticed an overall occupancy decrease trend since about May 28.”
She further explained that the occupancy is a measure of the capacity of the hospitals managed severe critically ill and in step-down facilities recovering patients.
This she implied means that four out of every ten beds in the parallel healthcare system are currently occupied.
“In Trinidad and Tobago, we have the ward occupancy overall where our least ill patients would be managed at 37%. Yet again, we have noticed a slow but consistent decline in the occupancy,” Dr Abdool-Richards said.
She said, “This morning there are 343 patients in the step-down and hospital facility which is across the sixteen facilities.
“At our nine hospitals, there is a combined total of 312 persons and at our step-down, a combined total of 121 persons, which shows the consistent and slow decline in the number of patients in the parallel healthcare facilities.”
However, Dr Abdool-Richards said, “We have three times as much as ill patients as we have recovering patients, which results in more resources being required within the parallel healthcare system.”
The PMO said that the traditional healthcare system has been having a decreased number of Covid positive patients awaiting transfers.
As at this morning, Dr Abdool-Richards said, “Each of our regional health authorities (RHAs), there has been a value of less than ten patients per RHA awaiting transfers. Additionally, we have noted that 30% of transfers over the last 24 hours by our ambulance system were due to Covid-19.”
