The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ONGOING works at Princess Margaret Hospital have forced the cancellation of all non-emergency elective surgeries, creating a “significant backlog” as technical problems stall renovations in the hospital’s main operating theatre, former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands warned yesterday.

Dr Sands told The Tribune the disruption has dragged on for several weeks as the Public Hospitals Authority tries to replace flooring in the main operating theatre, but cannot move ahead because the space must be properly climate-controlled and the air-conditioning chillers are not working.

“So even though they have the place partitioned off and they're waiting to start the work, they cannot do any work until the climate in the operating room and humidity control is such that whatever floor work they do doesn't just come out,” he said.

He said the operating room has been closed, but the refurbishment has stalled, putting the project behind schedule and forcing the hospital to restrict surgical services.

“The consequences are that you've got a significant backlog of cases, and they are literally on emergency only and this is a maintenance issue that has interrupted orchestrated capital works.”

In a statement released over the weekend, the Public Hospitals Authority confirmed that preparatory work is underway for extensive flooring renovations, but gave few details about the scope of the project.

The authority said only a portion of theatres is currently available for elective procedures, with surgical services being prioritised for emergency and urgent cases.

The PHA acknowledged that the disruption may cause inconvenience, apologised for the impact, and said work is expected to begin this week. It said efforts are being made to minimise interruptions.

Dr Sands blamed the situation on years of inadequate maintenance and what he described as the diversion of funds to other priorities.

“We have spoken repeatedly about the lack of financial resources applied to the Public Hospitals Authority, and in particular to public hospitals,” he said.

“The Rand and the Princess Margaret Hospital, in particular, there's outages of medication. There's outages of equipment, supplies, and so on, and so forth, and now yet again the chillers in the critical care block that's out of commission.”

He questioned how the country’s main public hospital could face such problems despite the size of the national budget.

“So, when you talk about you know a $4.4 billion budget, it boggles the mind that something as important as the healthcare services have been neglected the way they have,” he added.