The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

PRINCESS Margaret Hospital is currently tackling a backlog of more than 100 surgeries which were postponed earlier this month while the hospital investigated a suspected sabotage attack, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said yesterday.

Speaking to reporters outside Cabinet, Dr Sands also provided an update about the cooling system of the Children’s Ward. He said with some “tweaking” and “improved maintenance”, the ward was “sorted out”. Patients were returned there on Monday.

When asked for an update about the status of the Children’s Ward, Dr Sands replied: “There was an issue with the air-conditioning system, there was some concern that it could’ve been a significant challenge with the compressors or condensers. It turned out not to have been.

“They have been brought back on stream with just a little tweaking and improved maintenance that allowed us to get the Children’s Ward sorted out and I believe that those children would have been retuned to the limited Children’s Ward as early as yesterday (Monday).”

Last Wednesday, Children’s Ward patients were temporarily relocated to the hospital’s former Intensive Care Unit.

Earlier this month, PMH suspended non-emergency surgeries for nearly a week while it investigated possible sabotage at the hospital’s chiller system in the Critical Care Block.

The system was fully restored after a rental chiller unit was installed.

Dr Sands also addressed this matter yesterday.

“The temporary chiller for the Critical Care Block is working well,” he told reporters. “And that will, you know notwithstanding the fact that we have cordoned off the main Legacy driveway of the hospital, it is taking care of a problem and we’re now working on getting rid of the backlog, the backlog of cases, probably in excess of 100 cases that had to be postponed.

“And so now we’re now starting to work on getting those patients done.”

On July 15, PMH began the installation of a temporary 250-tonne chiller, which is to service the hospital until the permanent air conditioning unit is successfully installed.

As a result, the main driveway to the legacy entrance of PMH off Shirley Street at Burnside Lane was temporarily closed yesterday morning and will remain so for a period of five months to facilitate work on both units.

At the time, Dr Sands underscored that the investigation into the suspected sabotage is in the hands of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

He told The Tribune yesterday there were no updates in the investigation.