By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

THE Princess Margaret Hospital has been significantly affected by gun violence, according to the head of the Consultant Physicians Staff Association (CPSA).

Dr Sabriquet Pinder-Butler told The Tribune yesterday: “We know that any time we have an increase in gunshot injuries and any sort of violence in country in general that would require patients to come to the hospital it would certainly impact our healthcare system in general. In the first instance, we know that it will impact emergency rooms, certainly our trauma physicians, as well as the supplies that we have allocated in the emergency room in particular. The physicians, manpower, nurses, our ambulance, the whole healthcare system will be impacted.”

She said hospital staff prioritise gunshot victims, causing resources for other non-critical patients in the emergency room to be redirected.

“This will also result in delayed care for other persons that are in the emergency room and other persons that are in wait for the theatre, certainly impacting the amount of time that even our surgical physicians and other healthcare members that are part of the theatre have to be in the hospital. It would also impact the availability of blood which is something that has been a challenge at Princess Margaret Hospital and the country at large for a while. And so when persons come in as emergencies and require all these different things that come in as gunshot injuries and the like, it can have a significant impact.”

She said staff is sometimes concerned for their safety.

“The other thing we have to look at is the safety of our staff and certainly the persons that provide safety at the hospital because we have in the past had to have to be mindful of persons coming in with gunshot injuries as sometimes persons who are involved in that act of violence may also be receiving care within our institution. And so it is something that certainly all members of the team would be concerned about and we also have the security themselves who also have to encounter several members of society so it does have a significant impact on our healthcare at large.”