By Chantalé Fletcher
THERE has been a decline in admissions in the Covid-19 parallel healthcare system.
So said Principal Medical Officer of Institutions, Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards on Saturday at a press conference held by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.
Dr Abdool-Richards said the parallel health care system is less burdened this week than it was last week.
She said, “The overall occupancy has been slowly declining and is now at 60%.”
Dr Abdool-Richards said last week showed 187 extra patients while there were 157 extra patients in this week.
She said, “The reason we saw a decline from 187 to 152 is due to more patients being discharged in terms of the that portion.”
Dr Abdool-Richards added that the net effect of admissions has reduced the burden on the parallel healthcare system as compared to last week.
She referred to the number of Covid positive patients hospitalised in the parallel healthcare system.
Dr Abdool-Richards said, “Between May 25 to 28, there was a peek with just over 600 patients in total and then a flattening off.” Dr. Abdool-Richards explained.”
She added that the total number of patients over the past few months ranged from 573 to 638. This, she said, was a narrow window in terms of the spread across the sixteen facilities
Dr Richards stated that based on Trinidad and Tobago’s population, bed availability was around 90%. However, Saurday’s overall occupancy was 57% and over the last three weeks it ranged from 57% to 64%.
She said, “If we were to separate the number of persons that need care over the beds in T&T we will notice that the overall occupancy as of today is 60%.”
“Six out of tens beds in the entire system are being occupied,” Dr Abdool-Richards said.
She said, “The average over the last three weeks was 62 % which is close to what we notice in T&T and it dipped at 57%.”
Dr Abdool-Richards said there were seven hospitals in T&T responsible for the critically ill and sick Covid-19 patients.
She said the Point Fortin Hospital was added to the list in week 21 which had a bed capacity of 75 beds, which included HDU and ICU; 71 ward beds and four ICU or HDU beds.
She said an additional hospital added meant the number of beds available and the capacity increased.
Dr Abdool-Richards added that seven out of four of the hospitals are above critical zone of 75%, which demonstrates a larger portion of more sick patients as hospitals were more filled.
She said, “As of this morning, only one of the seven facilities is above the 75% threshold. The number of recovering patients is still lagging behind the number of actual ill patients.”
Dr Abdool-Richards said the demand for beds experienced a downward trend from or about May 27.
She said, “About half of our available ward beds are filled in Trinidad. ICU ratio is 76% while the HDU is 100%.”
Dr. Abdool-Richards said, “This does not mean that we have no more beds. However, as of today, we can transition between ICU and HDU as we have the consumables such as monitors and ventilators to increase.”
She also added, “We’ve been converting ward beds into ICU and HDU beds based on demand.”
