Field hospital to be reassembled

While the government has said that Cayman’s hospitals are not currently overwhelmed by Covid patients, despite the recent steep rise in cases, they are still increasing hospital beds with the reassembling of the field hospital as well as dedicating more rooms at the George Town hospital to Covid patients.

At a press conference last week, Health Minister Sabrina Turner said that the hospital had converted a significant portion of their in-patient rooms to negative pressure for the safe management of Covid admissions. The silver tubing coming out of some rooms that can be seen from the road are the rooms that had been specifically created with negative pressure to safely manage and control those patients who are receiving care for Covid, she explained.

The field hospital would also provide extra beds, where necessary.

“Arrangements to set up the field hospital at the Family Life Centre have now been initiated and it will be operational in the next few weeks,” she advised. This facility holds a capacity of 80 beds; however, it will be set up in phases so that the initial beds will aim to be ready for mid-December,” she advised.

Minister Turner spoke to the worries the public had about the staffing of the field hospital. The Minister said she wanted to dispel those fears when it came to worries about not being able to deal with the influx of patients.

“The HSA is working to recruit individuals to be able to staff the field hospital. These individuals are being sourced both locally and overseas, as we do admit that we do have persons over here from the medical field who are retired, who are willing and able to lend us their talents during this crisis,” she said. “HSA has already recruited over 30 nurses who will be starting over the next two months and with more job offers and interviews that are still ongoing.”

The flu hotline had also expanded its hours and was operating at a new location to deal with growing volumes of callers and to reduce call times for those calling, as well as improving the work environment for staff overall.

Ms Turner said the need for staff continued to grow and 52 temporary positions had already been added to the Covid response within the HSA and Public Health and more recruiting was still underway.