The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama Health Services is facing a shortage of about 40 registered nurses at the Rand Memorial Hospital, according to acting hospital administrator Sandra Mortimer-Russell.

She said the entire nursing pool consists of about 295 professionals and assistant nurses. Of that number, 125 are registered nurses, excluding the nursing officers.

Mrs Russell was speaking at a ceremony for the installation of officers of the Grand Bahama Lucaya Lion’s Club on Saturday.

Mrs Russell said that there is also a nurse shortage in New Providence, where Minister of Health Duane Sands spoke of the inability to open a part of the Critical Care Block at Princess Margaret Hospital due to the shortage of nurses.

She said nurses are retiring from the profession, leaving for personal reasons, for higher pay and relocating to work abroad.

Mrs Russell indicated there are also nursing issues globally.

She reported the World Health Organisation estimates a shortage of almost 4.3 million nurses, physicians and other health care human resources worldwide.

In the USA, roughly 204,000 nurses are needed yearly, Mrs Russell said, adding that healthcare professionals play a very important role in the delivery of quality healthcare to patients.

In Grand Bahama, she said that health services are provided by a cadre of well-trained and experienced professionals through seven community clinics, two satellite clinics, and the Rand Memorial Hospital, with a staff of 770. She also reported that over 659 babies were delivered at RMH in 2018. She also noted that some 4,375 patients were admitted at hospital last year.

This year, she reported that so far, some 2,100 patients have been admitted.

“That is an average of 325 patients per month admitted to the Rand Hospital,” Mrs Russell said.

Within a 24-hour period, she said the hospital can see 75-150 patients in the emergency room.

Most of those patients, she said, have complications from non-communicable diseases like heart problems, diabetes, circulatory problems.

Mrs Russell reported that 40 to 60 percent of the persons seen at the Accident and Emergency Department don’t have a true emergency. “They could have easily be treated in the clinic somewhere else,” she said, adding that it results in long wait time.

She also reported that on an average, they respond to about 25 ambulance calls in a 24-hour period. Of that, she said only five actually warrant an ambulance.