THE point of imposing restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was to give our healthcare facilities the best chance possible to deal with the pandemic. We have failed.
Princess Margaret Hospital is broken. A top doctor has said the hospital has “passed the breaking point”. If you’ve already passed the breaking point, it is broken.
The latest daily dashboard tells us that 137 people are in hospital with COVID-19 across the nation, and 19 of those are in intensive care. Those are the numbers, the reality is that PMH is “bursting at the seams” and a consultant in the Accident and Emergency section saying the hospital is at the point of collapse.
What does that mean? In Dr Raquel Davis-Hall’s words: “People are dying. Young people are dying.”
We lack the facilities to help people as the hospitals are overwhelmed. We don’t have the negative pressure rooms, leading Dr Davis-Hall to say “our efforts for these patients are limited.”
That’s the very stark reality. People can’t be helped. People are dying.
“We see patients come in, let’s say 12am, they’re breathing, and you could say in the next two hours those same persons can be dead,” says Dr Davis-Hall.
From alive and breathing to dead from COVID inside two hours.
Earlier this week, The Tribune published figures showing another stark reality – the vast majority of those in hospital are people who are not vaccinated. Not one fully vaccinated person is among those who have died.
If you want to give the country the best chance, if you want to help these medics who are working their hardest to keep people alive, then you need to follow the protocols of washing hands, wearing masks, using sanitisers – and avoiding gatherings unless you really need to.
If you want to give yourself the best chance, then get vaccinated.
The hospital needs more than just us playing our part. It needs nurses. It needs capacity – the recent tents donated by Samaritan’s Purse already full. It needs room for patients coming in from the Family Islands with nowhere to go.
The government may have solved the conundrum of vaccine supply – now it needs to solve the problem of the hospital not having what it needs to beat this surge.
The hospital is broken. We all have to play our part to fix it.
Trouble ahead?
Education Minister Jeff Lloyd says he is not concerned “whatsoever” over a prospect of industrial action as teachers have raised concerns ahead of the new school year.
Not so fast, Mr Lloyd. Take a look across at the escalating problems in the health sector, with staff staging a sick-out and genuine anger over how honorariums were decided and paid. A lack of communication has been a big part of the problem there – so how is communication going between staff and the Ministry of Education?
Well, according to the president of the Bahamas Union of Teachers, Belinda Wilson, the union has yet to even receive a plan from the Ministry of Education on the reopening of schools – and that reopening is just a week away for teachers.
Teachers and other staff are entitled to have genuine concern about health and safety – we have a healthcare system collapsing under the strain and surging numbers of new cases.
If we all have to pull together to get ourselves out of this pandemic, that starts with straightforward communication. Don’t be so dismissive – find out what the concerns are and address them. If you don’t, then don’t be surprised if schools face the same level of disruption the health sector is dealing with right now.
Comments
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
I really wonder how many peoole in this country have 2 eyes.
On June 25th 2021, the Tribune editorial was entitled "Light at the end of the tunnel". The article was about homeporting and how the increase in tourists would save us. The article rejoiced that "the Americans were coming", encouraged us to "welcome them with open arms" and "be ready for them".
That was June 25th. The 3rd wave that started in the 2nd week of March, around spring break, was pettering out. In fact on June 28th Dr Sands said hospitalizations were going down and they were.
But in response to the anticipated exponential increase in tourists visiting the island and that article's comment to "be ready for them", I commented:
"Start increasing the number of COVID beds at the hospital....". That was 8 weeks ago. We did nothing.
To see how rapidly this situation got out of control, by June 6th, a week later and the week when Mike Maura said we had 13000 tourists visit Nassau, the PHA announced that PMH was at capacity. Hubert Minnis did nothing. He and Renward Wells refused to acknowledge that anything was happening , seemingly hoping the cases would go away on their own. It wasnt until 4 weeks later, July 29th that Hubert Minnis acknowledged that there was a problem.
Why are we surprised now? Why did we let the tourists in without testing? Why did we refuse to acknowledge the link between exponential border crossings and exponential spikes? The evidence was all there right in front of our eyes. It annoys me today that people talk about being responsible and not adding to the burden at the hospital...You should have been saying that on June 25th. Please stop kowtowing to the PR must save tourism messaging of the administration, without the balancing concern on virus spread. its literally killing our families.
This current situation is NOT because of unvaccinated people its because of leaders who willfully ignored a burgeoning crisis
dwanderer 2 years, 8 months ago
I totally agree with you. The emphasis has always been on 'our tourist numbers'. In light of the fact that so many are unvaccinated and prior to last week, vaccines were not readily available, the concern should have been on how do we protect our vulnerable citizens. Tourists have been given the carte blanche to parade around our islands without entry tests for all visitors and without wearing masks. Last week, the Minister of Tourism even appeared in a photo op, greeting cruise visitors, some of whom were visibly unmasked. Shame on him and all of them who jeopardized the health of the nation for the mighty tourist dollar. Dead people cannot spend money.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
to clarify, its not only tourists, its anyone crossing the border, but what we experienced in July 2020, March 2021 and July 2021 were exponential increases in tourists to the tune of tens of thousands. Those are also the 3 periods when we had equally marked increases in hospitalizations with July 2021 being the most dramatic increase in both data points
tmoss 2 years, 8 months ago
The current situation is very clearly because of unvaccinated people. Everyone and their mothers need to get vaccinated as soon as possible. https://imgur.com/a/7MaRY8d">https://imgur.com/a/7MaRY8d
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
Youve correctly identified a symptom of the root cause
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
Just this morning the US issued a statement that ITS CLEAR the effectiveness of the vaccine is waning. People on this site have been referencing evidence from European countries for weeks on that very phenomenon and been called conspiracy theorists. I guarantee we're gonna wait till we feel the negative effects of that before we take any action too.
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
Repost:
Perhaps these Minnis controlled medical doctors and senior public health officials need to visit the Ministry of Health website, click on 'health statistics', then click on 'mortality' and have a good hard look at the 2014 numbers for leading causes of death per 100,000 people in The Bahamas. The numbers were compiled by the Health Information and Research Unit of The Bahamas Department of Statistics and made available to the public in August 2017.
The leading causes of death in 2014 were as follows:
Heart disease 135 deaths per 100,000 people; Cancer 102 deaths per 100,000 people; External Causes (Accidents, Violence and Poisonings) 67 deaths per 100,000 people; Stroke 38 deaths per 100,000 people; Diabetes 30 deaths per 100,000 people.
The statistical info for leading causes of death for years after 2014 is not yet available on the Ministry of Health's website for whatever reason. But it's unlikely the rates that would be shown for the years since 2014 have gotten any better.
Over the past 18 months we've had 333 COVID-19 deaths in The Bahamas according to public health officials. Some believe that number has been skewed to the high side for political reasons, but that's a story for another day.
The 333 COVID-19 deaths so far equate to about 55 deaths per 100,000 people calculated as follows:
333 ➗ (18 ➗ 12) ✖️ (100,000 ➗ 400,000) = 55.5, where the population of The Bahamas is assumed to be about 400,000 souls.
All the scaremongering by our elected officials and their appointees is really baseless when you consider that the average person living in The Bahamas has a greater chance of dying from so many other things.
Incidentally, you have about a 133 in 100,000 chance of being raped in The Bahamas, nearly three times more than the likelihood of you dying from COVID-19.
For those of you interested in learning much more about COVID-19 and the vaccines, the latest research studies published by the Israeli government are generally regarded as the gold standard. So far, these studies support the greatest amount of ongoing T Cell and B Cell immunity being achieved through the development of natural immunity, i.e., those who have been infected and recovered from COVID-19.
And it now seems the novel experimental vaccines only provide waning protection for a period up to 8 months, with unknown potential long-term side-effects that will only become known with the passage of significant time.
Many of these medical doctors and senior public health officials singing Minnis's song for their supper continue to be a major disappointment. They, like Minnis, know full well that our entire dysfunctional and grossly under-resourced public health system was on life support long before COVID-19 came along.
happyfly 2 years, 8 months ago
well said
Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 8 months ago
And my repost to your repost
For those of you interested in learning much more about COVID-19 and the vaccines, the latest research studies published by the Israeli government are generally regarded as the gold standard.
Gold Standard by whom ? Not saying they don't do great research in Israel, but I wouldn't consider it Gold Standard.
So far, these studies support the greatest amount of ongoing T Cell and B Cell immunity being achieved through the development of natural immunity, i.e., those who have been infected and recovered from COVID-19.
You might be right about the greater natural immunity from those who have recovered from COVID, but what good is that if you DON'T recover. The vaccine's purpose is to give you a better chance of recovering. Once again you have demonstrated your inability to think critically, because of your selfish, narcissistic nature !!
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz.........
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
Again the CDC said just yesterday, the evidence shows the vaccine is losing its effectiveness
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