Princess Margaret Hospital
By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
THE president of the Consultant Physicians Staff Association (CSPA) said doctors and nurses at Princess Margaret Hospital are “strained and fatigued” by the increase in gun violence.
“Obviously, it’s been traumatic for everybody,” Dr Charelle Lockhart told The Tribune yesterday. “I’m a paediatrician, so we’ve had children involved in a number of these incidents, and so that has been pretty traumatic for us.”
A 16-year-old girl was taken to the hospital yesterday after she was caught in the crossfire of a shooting incident that left her 35-year-old father dead after he picked her up for church on Wilson Track off Cordeaux Avenue. The girl’s uncle said she was grazed in the shooting, but did not sustain serious injury.
“The emergency room has been very busy, and it really puts a strain on all of us as we are trying to take care of the usual things that come into the emergency room, and you basically have to stop and have all hands on deck to take care of people who are critically injured from these incidents,” Dr Lockhart said.
Dr Lockhart said a shortage of staff and supplies is taxing doctors and nurses even more than gun violence.
She said issues retaining nurses are at a “critical point”.
“They have made attempts to hire nurses, which is obviously going to be very helpful to us,” she said. “In terms of physician staff, not quite sure there has been much relief on that particular front. So we see that the government is trying, but we really are at a critical point when it comes to staffing and supplies, and we do need some more urgent and immediate relief.”
To relieve some of the pressure placed on emergency physicians, Dr Lockhart urged the public to seek medical assistance at poly-clinics or outpatient facilities for immediate non-life-threatening illnesses.
“We are not a clinic,” she said. “We are not designed to see coughs and colds, and splinters in the finger, and fever for a day, those kinds of things. We are an accident and emergency department, and I think that we should be treated as such. And so our poly-clinics and our outpatient clinics really should be used for those minor non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries.”
Comments
Sickened 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Emergency Doctors, police and ambulance drivers need to get on the same page. When a shooting takes place the police need to give the ambulance drivers a wink if the victim is a gang member, then they know not to attempt to truly assist. Strap the victim to a gurney and then place him in the ambulance and wait until death before driving off. The same goes for doctors at the hospitals. They need a facial recognition system that alerts them if the victim is a gang member. If so, strap him down and go on break. Why are we trying to save these guys lives?
realfreethinker 8 months, 3 weeks ago
lol
bahamianson 8 months, 3 weeks ago
It has been like this for decades. Nothing has changed.
rosiepi 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Every week this paper informs and warns Bahamians of a litany of cracks and craters that all find their nexus in poor governance.
When the present government was elected they were capitalized on the response to the hurricane, followed by Covid 19. Two back to back disasters with a potential to impact the Bahamas the likes of which the Bahamas has mercifully not encountered.
When one looks at where we’ve ended up, a lawless recklessness and corruption made worse by a gov’t more intent on racking air miles (when needs go unmet at home) and preaching an embarrassingly transparent hypocrisy that at once whines at and chastises world economies.
So when we read of first responders who cannot approach victims because they lack the protective equipment, our understaffed ill paid hospital systems, teachers forced to teach to standards woefully inadequate for young Bahamians to enter the workforce, etc etc., one is left wondering what the heck is this government doing to serve it’s citizens?
And when one considers the back to back disasters the previous government handled without Covid running amok, spending money to help Bahamians out of work or homeless the wonder must be what was so wrong?
All we’ve accomplished since is to rack up crippling deficits with nothing tangible at hand. New schools? Fully functional government entities, a new prison? Hurricane shelters finished? Who is better off?
John 8 months, 3 weeks ago
When a non Bahamian boat captain can shoot two senior police officers and get away without even making a court appearance, that speaks volumes for the dysfunction happening in this country. Judgment begins at the top.
John 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Two more murdered tonight. At least one is a school student. These murders are not just taking their toll on first responders and medical staff, but the entire island of New Providence is in a state of battle fatigue. First thing in the morning and last thing at night. THiRTy murders this year and with it only being two months into the year, that gives and average of fifteen murders a month. Do the math and if nothing changes the country can see a record set for murders. Also for the number of school boys being murdered. The horses have left the gate and they are running. A rider less horse is in the midst.
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