Hospital’s A&E operating as usual

THE TEN-DAY impasse between the board of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners has had no major impact on the Accident & Emergency Department.Speaking to the media yesterday after a church service to launch a week of activities at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church on Jemmotts Layne, department head Dr Chaynie Williams said it was business as usual.“The actual impasse is quite serious . . . but it hasn’t affected us directly because it is business as usual as far as the doctors and nurses are concerned; we’re still present to work because we deal with emergencies every day.“So whoever presents to the Emergency Department we’re obligated to see them, and the waiting times have not been significantly negatively affected,” Williams said.With regard to the status of the talks between BAMP and the hospital board, QEH director Dexter James said the parties were sitting around the table.“They’ve committed not to make any public statements to the media. I am not privy to those discussions, but I’m hopeful that in the not-too-distant future we will have some resolution and revert back to normalcy,” he said.