The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A PRINCESS Margaret Hospital staff member is feeling frustrated after claiming she was not told to quarantine by hospital officials although she was exposed to three patients who later tested positive for COVID-19.

The hospital worker, who asked to remain anonymous, revealed she questioned why she was still working while some of her colleagues who were exposed were allowed to quarantine.

The reason, she claimed she was told by the doctor she reports to, was that she was low risk as she wore the proper personal protective equipment (PPEs).

“She said because I had on all the proper PPEs - the mask, the gown, the glove and everything (I don’t have to quarantine). My thing is, everybody else on the ward who came into contact with them, they had on the same thing I had on so that’s where my query came in,” said the employee.

“How is it they should be quarantined and they had everything and I should not be?

“.... Some people didn’t deal with them as long as we dealt with these people.”

The worker told The Tribune she was exposed to the patients back in July and was around these individuals for more than two weeks before she was informed. These patients were from two different wards.

She stated she was not aware the patients had the virus nor did they show symptoms while she attended to them.

The woman recalled the first patient with whom she came into contact.

“She’s a patient they took to the theatre but they didn’t know she was positive. ICU had to be shut down, that was a patient that time who went in there….I was tending to her. When she went to ICU, that’s when they found out she was positive,” she said.

“Word got back to the ward and those persons on that ward they were quarantined but nobody told me that this lady was positive and so I wasn’t quarantined.”

She said she also got confirmation from a doctor in the hospital that two other patients she tended to also had contracted the virus.

Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) Executive Vice President O’Neil Thurston, whose union represents patient care assistants, admitted to hearing some complaints about the hospital allegedly not following protocol.

“They are saying... let’s say they go on the ward and there’s COVID patients on the ward, they’re not being sent home to self-isolate. They’re not being tested,” he said.

Mr Thurston said the union has had meetings with health officials on the claims, which have been denied by the Public Hospitals Authority.

“They continue to refute it you know because apparently to PHA it’s not a big deal…. So our job as the union is to continue to agitate,” Mr Thurston said.

Attempts to reach PHA officials for comment were unsuccessful.