Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and potential exposure in several wards at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), Bahamas Nurses Union (BNU) President Amancha Williams yesterday sounded the alarm over what she said is a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) made available to nurses on the affected wards.
The Male Surgical Ward and Female Medical Ward have both been potentially exposed after an elderly woman reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
According to a hospital source, patients in another ward were exposed by a healthcare provider working on the ward.
While appearing as a guest on “The Hit Back with Nahaja Black” on Guardian Radio 96.9FM, Williams said nurses have been told to come to work on those wards, and others throughout the hospital, without the full regalia required to offer full protection from the virus.
“The only thing that the nurse is wearing on the ward is a surgical mask, gloves and an apron, not even a yellow gown,” Williams said.
She added that nurses haven’t been provided with N-95 masks, commonly used by healthcare professionals on the frontline.
Williams said rather than being tested, nurses who were potentially exposed on the wards have been told to remain with their patients they’ve already been in contact with.
“So, what you’re telling the nurses is you would then swab the patients but you would not swab the nurse,” she said.
“So, what the institution is now saying to the nurse is you’re not vital or important to me.”
She added that nurses don’t have an issue with wards remaining open despite potential exposure to COVID-19, but rather, they just want to be tested.
“So, I’m single, I’m the breadwinner and I’m going home to my family,” Williams said.
“That’s scary. I don’t have insurance that covers my whole family. I only have insurance for me. And at the end of the day, you’re telling me to come to work and I have this issue and you’re not addressing it. My mother is 87 years old and my son is asthmatic. How can I quarantine from them?”
Thirty-seven new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed yesterday– 32 on Grand Bahama and five on New Providence.
According to Williams, between 24 to 50 nurses have been placed in quarantine because of potential exposure.
However, she said the missteps that were made during the first wave of cases in March and April are being repeated, placing more healthcare professionals at risk.
“We should have learned from the first surge,” Williams said.
“During the first surge, we saw a ward affected twice. We’ve had a nurse infected twice. The second surge, she was admitted to the hospital and up to today, she still has not returned to the job because she is still having complications. So, if you’re seeing this trend sitting around your roundtable, you should’ve known with a second surge, okay, you cannot do this anymore because then, we’re going to expose too many of our workers and we already have a shortage. So, what we have now is, you’re asking a nurse, who is supposed to be in quarantine, that if you’re not showing any symptoms, to come to work and work with that group of patients that you were exposed to.”
Williams yesterday expressed disappointment with her inability to meet with the new minister of health to share her concerns.
She blasted government’s handling of nurses, saying, “The acting minister (Dr. Hubert Minnis) sat there for two months and didn’t reach out to us once.
“Ducking, that’s what it’s called. We don’t want no more government that doesn’t speak to the poor people’s need; because who you think coming to PMH? Surely not the rich. It is the poor and we must have a safe environment for our people. Could you imagine that same Male Surgical Ward, the roof is leaking? So, you have three beds out with a bucket collecting the water. Lord, don’t send the rain because we got floods. Still got plastic over the roof.”
When contacted on the matter, the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) offered no comment and Minister of Health Renward Wells could not be reached.
The post Nurses union decries lack of sufficient PPEs on PMH wards appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/07/30/nurses-union-decries-lack-of-sufficient-ppes-on-pmh-wards/
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