By Sue-Ann Wayow
A “death hole” is how the Covid-19 facility at the Point Fortin Area Hospital is being described by a registered nurse who was treated for Covid-19 at that institution.
He is claiming that there was one nurse to treat 50 patients resulting in a serious lack of care.
The nurse is calling for either a complete closure or an in-depth investigation into the operations of the facility that falls under the purview of the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA).
A video circulating on social media showed the nurse who tested positive for Covid-19, speaking of his experience at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the hospital.
The video was created by Ricardo Goolcharan, the industrial relations officer for the Public Services Association (PSA) and was done via interview style with the nurse who was not named making serious claims of mistreatment at the facility.
He was asked to describe his experience by Goolcharan.
He said, “It is the most horrific bad treatment I ever experienced in my life. There is one nurse to about 50 patients. There is nobody to take care of you properly.”
The nurse related food and medication not being given on time and being messed up for hours without anyone assisting to clean him.
“Wickedness to the highest degree, Point Fortin place needs to be closed down, it is a humility to people anybody going down there it is just a death hole,” he declared.
Being a nurse himself and seeing other patients treated badly pained him.
“I am a registered nurse and I don’t want to be a nurse no more. I don’t treat people so, the kind of treatment that I got,” he said.
The nurse who stayed two weeks at the hospital said his medication included antibiotics, painkillers in form of panadol and fluids and another medicine.
He was also given oxygen and intravenous fluids.
“The oxygen was monitored but sometimes the tank would run out and you have to wait for somebody to change the tank so you can’t get air to your body,” the nurse said.
He spoke of a man who was beside him in the ICU and both of their tanks ran out around the same time.
He said, “I bawling for help, he bawling for help, nobody coming to assist us, by the time they reached, the person died.”
However, he had high praises for the doctors who treated him.
“I was in the ICU and they did their best to revive me and stabilise me. The doctors were good, they were perfect. I have no problem with the doctors, they tried their best and they have me alive today,” he said.
Goolcharan at the end of the video said, “My people of Trinidad and Tobago, to the authorities, to the investigating team, please, we beseech you not only to listen to management but to listen to the testimonials of persons who are in these institutions.”
Last November, Goolcharan, a ward manager at the San Fernando General Hospital, protested in chains to highlight the strain on healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The SWRHA has been asked by AZPNews.com to respond to the claims being made in the video.
And at a recent Ministry of Health virtual media conference, Chief Executive Officer of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) Davlin Thomas was asked about the nurse to patient ratio at the NCRHA. He did not reveal actual numbers but said the ratio was “reasonable.”
