In this image from video, patients are seen apparently receiving oxygen in an outdoor tent at South Beach Clinic.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE desperate state of The Bahamas’ health service struggling with the COVID pandemic is laid bare in this one picture.
Under a flimsy canopy three patients sit hooked up to oxygen cylinders at South Beach Clinic. We knew matters were dire – but this?
Nearby medical staff in full personal protection equipment are working under a similar canopy, trying to do their job in a clinic’s car park.
This is how far the crisis has reached, how desperate the authorities have become to try and cope with the wave of patients now needing treatment for the deadly virus.
A video of this distressing scene exploded on social media yesterday and was followed by more grim news from health officials.
Seven new confirmed deaths, 127 new cases, 190 people hospitalised, 15 in intensive care.
The Tribune went to South Beach Clinic last night and thankfully discovered the patients were no longer outside nor were the medical staff. The canopies and oxygen stands were still there – waiting for tomorrow?
In the video aired on social media the woman filming the scene said: “This is what our health system has come down to, they have the doctors working in tents out in the rain.
“I meaning the rain coming down, the wind blowing, the little makeshift coverings, they have nothing to the sides of these tents, I mean it’s awful. This is what our health system has come down to. There has to be a better way. Taxpayers money, where is it going? What is the Minnis administration doing? It’s awful.
“Rain coming, you have to get nebulized outside in the rain under tents, people getting wet up and soak up. The rain, the conditions, the area, it’s ridiculous. How could it be? People please share this video, share this video. It has to be a better way. It’s not the people’s time, it can’t be. The health system has crashed.”
Health Minister Renward Wells did not respond to a request for comment yesterday and Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan did not answer calls.
The Bahamas has already recorded 520 confirmed COVID-19 cases in just the first five days of September.
The 190 hospitalised cases is a new record for hospitalisations.
Although the Minnis administration has put its vaccination programme at the centre of efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, the worsening virus situation is likely to bring further attention to the ongoing political developments, which have been characterised by public events that have not always adhered strictly to COVID-19 protocols.
Over the weekend, the Medical Association of The Bahamas expressed concern that the political activities will be super-spreader events.
“The country is experiencing rapid escalation in the number of individuals becoming COVID-19 positive, needing hospitalisation and of persons dying due to this devastating illness,” the MAB said. “These gatherings in the past have been observed as super spreader events.
“We look at data collected from countries in our region that have held elections during the pandemic and demonstrated a jump in cases post-election, due to exposure during election campaigns. Our healthcare facilities are swamped and we are losing medical persons exposed to this deadly virus, including physicians.
“If this trend continues, we will need to expand capacity for the probably increase in cases that will result from our inability to consistently enforce COVID-19 protocols during the campaign season.”
Comments
ThisIsOurs 3 years, 2 months ago
Shouldnt show people in that vulnerable state unless theyve given permission to capture their images. This could be extremely painful for families. Don't know what the solution is Bahamians have lost all sense of propriety. You would not want someone to do this to you if you were helpless and less than photograph ready.
Shame on Renward and Minnis for exacerbating this already bad situation for the sake of a vote. Completely avoidable. Its like Minnis just creates crisis after crisis so he can claim to solve them.
SP 3 years, 2 months ago
The country needed a hospital but the PLP and FNM built stadiums instead!!
Stupid does as stupid is..
Sickened 3 years, 2 months ago
Our governments' (mostly PLP) priority has always been "mine first". Unfortunately there's hardly anything left over for the people.
tetelestai 3 years, 2 months ago
You do realize that since 1992, the FNM has been in power for 20 of the past 29 years, right? Stop with the lazy PLP corrupt rhetoric.
stillwaters 3 years, 2 months ago
People, please go get vaccinated or try harder to follow the established protocols and stop flirting with death. He's a fatal lover........stop putting yourselves in harm's way.
joeblow 3 years, 2 months ago
... it far more likely that people die from a calloused healthcare system than the disease itself. How many have been sent home because their symptoms were not severe enough and told to come back if they got worse.
WHY people are dying has to be investigated. The system may be contributing to their deaths!
carltonr61 3 years, 2 months ago
Emergency orders got a F grade. More people have died. More families are grieving under emergency dis-orders. A million times more cases. Like Modi of India an election is called at the height of Covid. Guess we will be seeing mass Graves and burning bodies also after this failure of Hitler like dictitorial leadership is gone along with its slave like MPs. How could the Bahamas conquer Covid relying on outside advise only from foreign PAHO and their international one script fits all and not our native nurses and doctors on the ground whose opinions have been thrown into the trash from March 2020. This is now September 2021 and our Bahamian gov is yet to listen to Nurses And doctors on the ground. This is not New Zealand, k, Australia, Denmark, Iceland, India or Canada. But we are being sold on one universal script as though The Bahamas is not The Bahamas. All the above countries went into massive deaths, level 4 CDC travel no go zones. After vaccinations CDC demanded all vaccinated and vaccinated be tested for active Covid. Only our medical/political scientists lied that the vaccinated were free deadly folly that cost hundreds of lives.
KapunkleUp 3 years, 2 months ago
Of course we could do better but instead of doing better, Minnis is blabbering about free lunches and Davis is rambling about minimum wage increases.
tetelestai 3 years, 2 months ago
We do need a minimum wage increase - to argue this is to argue that the world is flat. And, obviously you are blind - or simply obtuse - to the literally hundreds of kids who come to school without breakfast or lunch. Pull your head out of you ass...for once.
KapunkleUp 3 years, 2 months ago
Wow... you really need to learn to relax more. A pinch of common courtesy and respect for other opinions wouldn't hurt either.
benniesun 3 years, 2 months ago
A new hospital will be like a band-aid. The root causes of our diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, cancers, etc must be eliminated. Instead of putting monies into a new hospital those monies should be funneled into effective programs which will ensure that our foods and drinks are nutritious and are free of illness inducing poisons such as artificial flavors, artificial colors, preservatives, herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, desiccants, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), plastic packaging that leech carcinogens into foods (these line tin cans too), fluoride in drinks and toothpaste, soy, canola, imported foods having high mold content (labelled for export only), poisonous (carcinogenic) hair and beauty products, and the worst insidious most addictive offender SUGAR (gets converted directly into fat and suppresses the immune system for hours)...etc... These poisons are slow acting and over time ruin our heath producing the so called dreaded comorbidities and the poisonous sugars and oils cause unmanageable obesity, so a proactive approach is required not a band-aid.
DonAnthony 3 years, 2 months ago
This is not the problem many seem to think it is. A doctor who worked at this clinic says they much preferred working outside and that it was the better option as it reduced the risk of transmission being outside versus a closed environment.
ThisIsOurs 3 years, 2 months ago
Not a problem? We were at 289 or so before July. We are noe at 446. Its the exact same scenario as July 2020. 100+ deaths immediately after they opened the border for tourist dollars. History will not be kind to this leader and his health minister
MrsQ 3 years, 2 months ago
Oh, yes, I'm sure the doctors and patients just love being outside in pouring rain and thunderstorms like the ones we've had lately. Very safe, too.
John 3 years, 2 months ago
THEY ARE NOT TELLING YOU THAT THE THIRD WAVE HAS PEAKED WORLDWIDE! The curve has been bent and numbers are coming down. NO it did not have to get this bad in THE BAHAMAS. With the numbers they f people getting ill, having to be hospitalized and many dying. But the authorities, including your prime minister, threw caution to the wind and went on a vaccine campaign. Nothing wrong with that, per se, if you want to be vaccinated, but they seem to abandon all other safety measures opening the borders prematurely etc. they went on a brutal crusade against persons who didn’t want to take the vaccines. Now they planning to vaccinate school children as the wave has peaked and cases are declining. Why not keep the children home for a few more weeks, then see what happens. But if you plan to vaccinate your children and have older members In your family, ensure the older folk are also vaccinated because they now become vulnerable. The Bahamas numbers of new cases dropped by several hundred over the past few weeks. The focus besides vaccines (for them who want them) is to give urgent and quality care to those falling ill. The country and the economy is mostly open so either some type of immunity has set in (worldwide) and/or the virus ( at least the present strains) is making a retreat ( hopefully the last wave).
ConchFretter 3 years, 2 months ago
The issue is we do not have the means to give urgent and quality care to the high number of people falling ill. That is why prevention (vaccination, mask wearing, social distancing) is so important. We do not have the capacity to provide cure to hundreds, much less thousands of people at the same time.
ThisIsOurs 3 years, 2 months ago
I agree, incompetence would still rear its head if we had 3 people hospitalized. Its a complete disaster with 190. We've all heard the medical horror stories long before COVID. They need to stop pretending it doesn't exist and try to exercise some oversight over professionals who they must know shouldnt be trusted to practice on their own.
KapunkleUp 3 years, 2 months ago
I fear Covid, with its many mutations, will become a part of our lives for many years to come. Just like the flu, it will be something people will have to deal with.
John 3 years, 2 months ago
Civid soon gone. But there will be lasting effects. Many people left with long lasting effects and others with mental issues. Did the vaccines help or hinder the progress? The people who took them didn’t get seriously ill or die but they caused many, many others to contract the virus. Especially when they wandered around without masks and not being tested. But there’s now a light at the end of the tunnel. And the light is for everyone, vaccinated and unvaccinated. And yes there’s more distance to go. Keep your guard up.
stillwaters 3 years, 2 months ago
Nothing the government can plan, implement, suggest, mandate, legislate .....can keep this virus out of your body......only you can do that. Keep yourself out of harm's way.....It's your responsibility to yourself. Stop waiting for the government's plan and make a safety plan for yourself.
John 3 years, 2 months ago
Dr Anthony Fauci aka De Death, finally admitted , after much prodding, that persons who recovered from Covid and have antibodies DO NOT need to take the vaccines. They hardly ever get sick from Covid again. Their natural immunity is better than any that can be provided by a vaccine or a series of them. And the thin, surgical masks everyone is wearing provides little or no protection from the virus.
annmon 3 years, 2 months ago
There is this video and there is common sense and self care. If our citizens and residents would just learn to be law abiding and learn how to follow rules and regulations perhaps they or their families would not have to be outside under a tent vulnerable to the elements. Just take a drive out to fish fry/Arawak Cay(with your windows up) and then talk about what the Govt is and is not doing regarding our hospital and the health care system. Also, take a drive past some of these restaurants/bars, notably one in particular on Harold Road and tell me then what you think. Our hospital has been in shambles since I was a child and NO Gov't that came in power has made any consistent effort to upgrade the facility, keep it upgraded, pay the nurses and doctors a reasonable salary, kept them motivated and it certainly isn't happening now. This video only speaks to the lack of discipline that our people have and the little regard for their families. Stop gathering in groups partying ,stop taking the virus home to your elders. Wear your mask, wash your hands, social distance and stop placing the blame for these outbreaks any where other than in the mirror looking at yourself.
whogothere 3 years, 2 months ago
Yes but...most of the non pharmaceutical prevention methods you just mentioned - social distancing, masks (particularly cloth masks and with exception to n95s) - have been shown to be utterly ineffective in light of the fact COVID is airborne disease. This is ultimately more about the failure of the Bahamian health care system and national practices around diet and health, than the 'deadliness' of covid or the behaviour of it's citizens (plus seasonality)...
Compare deaths per million:
Sweden - no masks, no vax mandates, no curfews, no lockdowns.. Israel - masks, vaccine mandates, curfews, 80% vaxxed Bahamas - masks, school closures, curfews, school closed
Look at the outcomes - underlying health and health care of the nation have more to do with COVID mortality that any restrictions or preventive measures a nation can prescribe...
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/co…
TigerB 3 years, 2 months ago
In this country the government get the blame for when ya get sick, can't pay ya bills, house not repaired, don't have house insurance, when ya car broke down, no food in the house, can't feed ya children, the hotel close, when ya can't get a job.. when the power company executives don't honor the union agreement, when a snap election call, when a hurricane trash ya house... did I miss anything? We as Bahamians need to start takin responsibility for our failures. In this instance for more than a year we all knew what would happen if we didn't take precautions with this covid ting, we didn't. Them old people does say when ya can't hear you will feel.
No government could fix this.
John 3 years, 2 months ago
Before the vaccines, the world was doing a great job in controlling bathe virus, and keeping deaths low. The United States was one of the few countries, pre-vaccines, that were not able to bend its curves and see its numbers of new cases and deaths decrease. But the nature of Americans is they live their freedom snd their ability to move around, do as they feel and travel as they please. The million dollars plus in fines for passengers violating travel and safety regulations during the pandemic is testament of this. So when news came about that a vaccine was now available that will help bring your life back to normalcy in a short time, many Americans took the vaccines, because, for them, it was the best option. And it could have been the speedway on the road back to normalcy, except those in authority, who were supposed to be competent discarded most of the other protocols and safety measures and worshipped the vaccines as GGid and Savior. And those refusing the vaccines were regarded ad unfit infidels who were not worthy to enter the kingdom of the recovered. The new world of order, where the unvaccinated were not only not welcome , but would find it nay impossible to function. The vaccines were not mandatory until one tried to function. And even today, even after the manufacturers concede that the vaccines alone cannot get us out the pandemic and the efforts to vaccinate everyone was in error. Recovered persons have the best and natural immunity to the virus , never mind he mutations and will pay a key and vital role in achieving herd immunity and causing the virus to recede. Yet in this country and other parts of the world, unvaccinated people are treated as modern day lepers and persons who recovered from the virus and do not take the vaccines are simple idiots. The prime minister says no time to research and find out more about the vaccines , just roll up ya sleeve and take the jab. And maybe that’s what he is doing: RUSHING BAHAMIANS to take the vaccines, that does not cure or eliminate the virus, without having a clear understanding or policy for vaccinations. Not for the medium bterm when the vaccines start to wear off and definitely not fit the long term.
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