By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

AN alarming number of healthcare workers forced into COVID-19 quarantine has left Princess Margaret Hospital in a state of “unprecedented stress”, a senior Public Hospital Authority official said.

Catherine Weech, PHA managing director, spoke to The Tribune yesterday and  expressed grave concern with the state of affairs at public facilities regarding the high influx of COVID-19 patients and announced plans on addressing the public this coming Friday.

“It’s tough,” Ms Weech said. “As it stands right now we’ve received an alarming number of COVID-19 patients requesting services in our hospital. We are experiencing high rates of staff being confined to quarantine and this has created an unprecedented stress on our ability to be able to staff our facilities (like) we would.

 “The increase in the numbers of deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic has now caused us to come out and arrange a press conference for Friday in an attempt to be able to further appeal to the public to understand the crisis that we are in and to take precautions that are necessary to help us to reduce the demand on our current overburdened and highly stressed public healthcare system.”

 The burden of COVID-19 is not just isolated to the public healthcare system, with Doctors Hospital Health System’s CEO Dr Charles Diggis recently revealing the overcrowded state at the private institution.

 Last week Dr Diggis told The Tribune that Doctors Hospital is “overrun” with COVID-19 patients and continues to be pounded from the requirements of care required for people with the virus.

 This week, a voice note of a heart wrenching plea for prayerful coverage of those employed in the healthcare field made its rounds on social media. It is said to be the voice of Nurse Mary Walker, hospital administrator for PMH, interceding on behalf of her colleagues.

 “Asking for prayer covering for all persons in healthcare,” Nurse Walker said in the recording. “Those who are healthcare providers as well as persons who are seeking healthcare and healthcare assistance in the COVID pandemic times.

 “These are unprecedented times. There is so much death and uncertainty around. Persons are actually sitting in their cars and trying to make up their minds whether or not to come into work. That’s how exhausted they are.

 “To the persons in the country who are not heeding the safety protocols, but instead are being selfish, there’s some of us who are more vulnerable in the population than others. This is a call to all Bahamians to be thinking about the next Bahamian standing next to you. “There are just too many persons dying unnecessarily. God put us here to take care of one another. We’re not doing that right now,” Nurse Walker said.

 The Tribune also reached out to Nurse Amancha Williams, president of Bahamas Nurses Union, and Dr Sabriquet Pinder-Butler, head of the Consultant Physicians Staff Association, for a reaction to the state of the healthcare system, but both said that they were too tied up in duties to speak at the time.

 A video made the rounds on social media this week showing some people in respiratory distress receiving treatment in rainy conditions under a tent outside the South Beach Clinic, further underscoring the country’s health crisis.

 Health Minister Renward Wells yesterday said officials were looking at ways to add beds to the healthcare system.