There is no need to panic over patient care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), says Minister of Health John Boyce.
The minister was responding yesterday to news of a critical shortage of ventilator support for babies at the QEH over the weekend, which prompted head of the Paediatrics Department, Dr Clyde Cave, to warn in an email on Saturday to senior hospital officials that the critical situation to which they were previously alerted “has now reached a dire crisis”.
The email, which was copied to Dr David Callender, director of medical services; Louise Bobb, acting chief executive officer; and consultant paediatrician Professor Anne St John, said in part: “One anticipates that babies will die this weekend as we are unable to respond with ventilator support.”
Cave advised all doctors on the paediatric service to contact their union and medico-legal representative as failure to provide the accustomed respiratory support to newborns who needed it would be viewed as negligence. (SP)
