The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PUBLIC Hospitals Authority officials yesterday downplayed several concerns raised by a doctor about conditions at the Princess Margaret Hospital while pointing to changes that have taken place to alleviate issues with the state of the facility.

In a statement to The Tribune, the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) said it took strong exception to claims made by a local physician in an email sent to dozens of health professionals last week.

The Tribune obtained a copy of that email. In it the doctor complained of leaky ceilings, a shortage of the antibiotic Ampicillin which reportedly caused the drug to be kept only for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and that timely specimen collection has been a challenge. The email mainly highlighted the experiences of patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Public

Officials said it was important to allay fears among the general public regarding purported medicine shortages and structural problems at PMH.

“For the record, the Public Hospitals Authority can confirm that the antibiotic highlighted in the letter to The Tribune was never out of stock at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and the ‘limited supply’ to which the author refers is best explained by a global shortage of the drug in question,” the PHA’s statement said.

“The item - Ampicillin injection - has been the subject of a global shortage due to quality issues associated with the major UK/European global manufacturer of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API). The company voluntarily withdrew recently manufactured stock from the market, before it was released to the public. This resulted in an acute supply problem in the market.”

The PHA said the Bahamas National Drug Agency (BNDA) sourced an alternative supply from the United States. That supply was shipped and delivered to the PHA two weeks ago, the statement said, and is currently in stock at both PMH and the Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama. BNDA officials, the statement said, have since secured a two months supply of Ampicillin product for both hospitals, and is monitoring the situation with the distributor and the manufacturer to assess whether additional alternate supplies should be secured.

Regarding the claims of leaky roofs and the malfunctioning of the air-conditioning unit in the ICU and Post Anaesthesia Care Unit, the PHA said the problem was due to a water line from the air-conditioning drain pan located in the attic which had snapped.

“All condensation lines are professionally designed and installed in accordance with the building codes of the Bahamas,” the PHA said.

“These systems run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and every effort is made to reduce downtimes for service or replacement reasons. The problem was sourced and corrected.

“Similarly the A/C unit in ICU that was highlighted in the report was pulled for repair after it went down on Monday, July 28. Measures were employed to cool the area and three days later the unit was returned to service with new parts.”

The PHA further noted that work was being done to address timely specimen collection and reporting.

“In the long term, officials said the state-of-the-art Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the new Critical Care Block at PMH is now being prepared. It is expected to be inspected by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) next month.

“The Authority can report, however, that the Pneumatic Tubing System aligned with the Accident & Emergency Department was activated two weeks ago and this has significantly reduced turnaround times as specimens are received in lab within seconds,” the statement said.

Facilities

“The alignment of the ICU, NICU and Pharmacy will be outfitted on the Pneumatic Tubing System once those facilities are moved to the Critical Care Block. The PHA adds that despite the work to pass inspection in September the turnaround time for lab services has not been adversely impacted as porters and phlebotomist routinely check wards for samples and delivery to Lab.”

In the meantime, the PHA has also secured the employment of hired three phlebotomists and three medical technologists and added that additionally staff previously trained in one area of service are now functioning in three core areas of laboratory services, the statement said.

The completion of inspection by the CAP next month would place the PMH lab as the biggest labs in the Caribbean to be accredited by CAP.