By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

The decision to temporarily close Doctors Hospital to the general public was made by health officials in an effort to protect healthcare workers and the Bahamian public at large against the COVID-19 threat, according to Health Minister Dr Duane Sands.

Speaking on the matter during Friday’s press conference, Dr Sands said: “…Each confirmed case, we have thoroughly investigated the case to determine where the patient, the confirmed patient was and what environment they may have visited.

“And if there was ever a perception that there could’ve been contamination, we have to taken the position that those facilities would be high-cleaned.”

“We’ve done that at Elizabeth Estates. It’s now happening with Doctors Hospital. It’s now happening at Bimini clinic - if it hasn’t happened already - and so the whole idea is that we want to keep the public safe but we want also want to keep our healthcare workers safe.”

On Thursday, the healthcare facility released a statement, suspending all in-person visits to the hospital. This, officials said, was to prevent the spread of the highly infectious disease.

“Patients will be encouraged to use their mobile devices and the hospital’s wireless internet to communicate with loved ones and friends,” the statement read.

“The hospital will also provide teleconferencing kiosks for patients who may have challenges doing this on their own. Exceptions may occur but this will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”

Asked if health officials were satisfied that the facility had not been comprised due to possible COVID-19 exposure, he replied: “Once there are cases with a connection to the facility, then there are a number of interventions.

“If you look at the persons involved and whether or not they are practicing appropriately, whether they are adhering to infection prevention and control measures , whether some should be put in isolation or quarantine and then the facilities where patients would have been or cases would have been would be high cleaned to a standard defined by international regular protocols.”