PM: Princess Margaret Hospital is in a crisis

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“You would have heard during the tour yourselves how long many of the departments and units of the hospital had been in a state of disrepair and not being used.

“So what we see here is not challenges, but truly crisis, and I indicated then that we had a health crisis and part of that crisis is exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, which exposed the infrastructural challenges in crisis we had that require immediate attention - we have the responsibility of providing those services. We see patients in corridors on gurneys. We see the tight spaces in which the nurses and doctors are operating and it just heightens the urgency of now that we do what we need to do and do it very swiftly and quickly.”

He added: “We were hearing about it. We were seeing the news about it, but to come and walk and experience it is truly heart wrenching to see what we have today but we will fix it — we are fixing it. Hence, we trust that you will see what we’re up against and as an aside I said I see why you brought me because you’ll need money but we will do what we have to, because I take a very serious view.”

He told PMH officials that they have his support in getting the health crisis fixed.

For her part, Dr Rolle also conceded the hospital was in a crisis, adding that action is needed.

“I’d like to continue what the prime minister stated and I would term this as crisis - it’s crisis. So it’s at a point to where we really need to action and that’s exactly what we’re doing now because a few of the things that we’re dealing with now in terms of infrastructural have been there for a while but we have we failed to just move forward and have them done, and what you’re actually seeing now is the actioning of that, so that we could move forward, but it’s just one level of pandemic after the other. So right now you see it happening with another level of pandemic, which is the sick population.”

There have been complaints for years about a lack of adequate bed space and poor infrastructure at PMH. People have also complained about long wait times to be seen and alleged negligence.

In December, an agreement to allow for the transfer of PMH patients to Doctors Hospital West to facilitate much needed repairs at PMH was announced. It was previously reported that the hospital renovations would take place for approximately 14 weeks.

PHA’s managing director said there were around 356 patients in the hospital on Saturday but officials have had up to 424 patients at one point.

“Not all of those patients being in physical beds on the ward, but really being in that virtual space and that is where the levels of concerns are because that is really in the corridor, in emergency room, in the chapels, sitting in chairs because that is what we’re seeing,” Dr Rolle said.

“Doctors Hospital is