The article 'Intensive care facility wasted at UHWI' in The Sunday Gleaner was disheartening.
The article opened, "For every 100,000 people in the island there is one intensive care unit (ICU) bed available in the public health system." It then went on to explain that the $237 million dollar facility opened two years ago has 26 ICU beds but only eight can be used because there is a lack of ICU nurses.
The unit was built to house patients recovering after major lung, heart, brain and spine surgeries, with one nurse assigned to each patient. If no nurse is available, the surgery cannot be done.
Consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Paul Ramphal, quoted in the article said that three to five cases are referred to them weekly but because of the shortage of nurses, on average, only four can be done monthly.
He also noted that some nurses leave because of the treatment they receive and that owing to the competence of the island's nurses, "they are snapped up overseas at a moment's notice."
Even if other sectors are short staffed, it is important that the health sector is sufficiently staffed due to the nature of the service being provided.
When lives are dependent on the care received at the hospital, then life and death literally lie in the hands of the relevant authorities responsible for hiring these nurses.
Also, it is a grand waste of money to build these facilities that are not being used, when that money could have been better spent paying nurses.
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