A plan by health authorities to retrofit a rural senior citizens hospital as a quarantine centre for persons showing signs of the Ebola virus or anyone arriving from any part of the world where there is an outbreak, has been put on hold.
According to health sources, patients now housed at the St Lucy District Hospital near River Bay in the northernmost parish were to have been transferred to other facilities across the island so the complex could be readied in short order.
However, worried staff of the institution raised the issue with the National Union of Public Workers last week, soon after being informed they would have to move.
Last Friday, someone close to the workers told the DAILY NATION that Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Tennyson Springer informed the staff during a meeting they and all patients were being moved to three district hospitals – the St Philip District Hospital in Ruby; Gordon Cummins Hospital in Rock Hall, St Thomas, and the Geriatric Hospital in Beckles Road, St Michael.
The St Lucy Hospital houses 29 patients, and 15 were to be transferred to the St Philip District Hospital, eight to Gordon Cummins and six to the Geriatric Hospital.
The 15 nurses were to have been redeployed at the three institutions.
In response to questions from the DAILY NATION, Springer said: “We did give serious consideration to the use of the St Lucy Hospital, but we are now looking at an option closer to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).”
