By Sue-Ann Wayow
GOVERNMENT will now be moving to a hybrid system of hospital care for Covid-19 patients instead of a parallel healthcare system with separate facilities are used.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the Arima Hospital which is being used to treat Covid-19 patients only, will be the first to be used as part of the hybrid system.
He made the statements on Wednesday at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference.
The minister said last week Monday, the hospital stopped taking in new Covid-19 patients as it prepares to be the next Covid-19 facility to be decommissioned. Point Fortin Hospital was the first.
Deyalsingh said at the time, there were 39 patients and currently, there were 20.
He is hoping that by the middle to the end of May, the Arima Hospital can be fully decommissioned to allow for care of non-Covid patients.
Deyalsingh said, “What we are doing with Arima… we are going to be using Arima and all other hospitals eventually, we can’t say when at this time, moving from the parallel system where you have two types of care, one for Covid, one for none Covid, to a more hybrid system, where in the same facility will be treating Covid patients alongside none Covid patients.”
He said Arima Hospital equipped with 10 dialysis chairs was used as the main dialysis centre for Covid patients, a service that will continue at that facility even when decommissioned.
“That is going to be a sort of test case moving the health system eventually to a hybrid system rather than a parallel system.”
The minister said he along with Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram and other health officials met with the management and staff at the Arima Hospital last week.
“All systems are in place with separate entrances, exits, infection prevention protocols to use Arima as a hybrid system as we move forward,” Deyalsingh said.
The Tacarigua Racquet Centre that is being used as a step-down facility has been unoccupied for a while as well as the Debe university campus, he also said.
Deyalsingh said those centres were also being reverted back for the original and intended uses of those facilities.
The Racquet Centre should be handed back over to the Ministry of Sport by next week as and the Debe campus will be returned to the University of the West Indies, he said.
