ST ANDREW, Jamaica. The University Hospital of the West Indies, the country’s main referral hospital with 579 beds, has asked the public to seek care elsewhere for anything that is not an emergency, after an influx of patients pushed its accident and emergency department beyond capacity.
In a notice issued on Wednesday the hospital said it was handling patient volumes well above normal. It warned that anyone arriving with a condition judged less urgent should expect to wait far longer than usual, and that treatment would continue to be ordered by severity, with the most critically ill seen first.
Emergency departments run on triage, the structured process by which staff pick out patients whose lives are at immediate risk. The hospital treats as emergencies severe trauma from road crashes or violence, the signs of a heart attack or stroke, acute breathing difficulty, and surgical crises.
The pressure is being made worse by the number of seriously ill patients who need admission at a time when ward space is scarce. Efforts to reach the hospital’s management for further comment were unsuccessful on Wednesday.
The hospital said its emergency department remains open and that medical, nursing and support teams are continuing to treat everyone who needs urgent care. It asked patients with non-urgent complaints to go instead to their nearest health centre or family doctor.
LRTVS News Desk
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