By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE electrical problem that caused patients who are critically ill to be transferred from the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope to the Arima General Hospital has been fixed.
On Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) Davlin Thomas told AZP News, “There is no fault in the system now.”
He said that for approximately three minutes around 4 am on Tuesday, there was a complete blackout of electricity, effects of which were not adverse to any of the hospital’s operations.
That was to facilitate the transfer of supply from one faulty transformer.
The hospital’s contingency plans involved with the help of the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) the switching of the electricity supply to another newer transformer, also prepared as part of a contingency plan and “particularly checked,” he said.
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Thomas said that two weeks ago, faults in the electrical system were identified during weekly routine checks and a company was engaged to conduct maintenance works on a transformer which turned out to be faulty.
When it malfunctioned at around midday on Monday, the hospital turned to its back-up generators to continue providing electricity to wards, clinics, and other critical areas.
Thomas said with over $11 million dollars spent in electrical systems over a period of six years, the hospital has learnt to be “ultra careful” as it relates to electricity.
He said further checks will be conducted regarding the faulty transformer, after which a determination will be made to either keep the equipment at the facility or change it.
Thomas said the nine patients transferred to the Arima Hospital consisted of two persons from the Accident and Emergency Department, one from the High Dependency Unit, and others from the Intensive Care Unit and a paediatric patient. They were transferred out of an abundance of caution for them he said with the help of the Incident Response Team (IRT).
The first two patients from the A&E were transferred at just before 2 pm and the last one transferred at around 7 pm using a tiered system on Monday.
Thomas said because they were deemed critical, the hospital would not want to be moving them around and they will continue to receive the care needed at the Arima Hospital which he said was fully equipped and capable of taking care of the additional nine.
