Dawes defends doctors, administrators at BHC amid critique from Tufton

Transferring patients from one hospital to another may not be as simple as is being suggested, Opposition Spokesman on Health and Wellness, Dr Alfred Dawes, has said.

According to Dawes, sometimes the receiving hospitals are either overcrowded or the patient is unstable.

Dawes made the assessment as he defended medical personnel and the management at the Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC) who have been critiqued by Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, over their perceived shortcomings in not having an 11-year-old girl with a form of scoliosis to be transferred to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) for a life-changing surgery.

The surgery could not be done at BHC due to air conditioning issues at the operating theatre there.

At a press conference last Thursday, Tufton said there has always been a reluctance for one hospital to transfer patients to the next hospital "because the clinical team here feels, I don't know, inadequate if they do that; I don't know what the reasons are.

"In this case (of the 11-year-old girl) it's a simple case of having a proper dialogue between... the university (UHWI)... (and) Bustamante (Children's Hospital)," Tufton asserted then.

In addressing a People's National Party (PNP) press briefing on the state of the public healthcare system on Monday, Dawes said he does not subscribe to the narrative that the doctors at BHC were reluctant to transfer the patient in question because they would feel inadequate.

"I know these doctors at Bustamante (Hospital for Children); some of them are stalwarts, giants in the medical field," Dawes stated.

"I was trained at Bustamante (Hospital for Children) and I know the calibre of doctors (there), and it has nothing to do with ego why a lot of times patients can't leave an institution," he suggested.

In pointing to when he worked at Savanna-la-Mar Hospital in Westmoreland, Dawes said he tried to transfer a patient and a doctor at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) told him (Dawes) that it is better he "keeps the patient there (in Westmoreland) because at least you will look after them".

Dawes said KPH simply did not have the space to accommodate the patient who would otherwise be stuck in a corner on the accident and emergency (A&E) ward at the city hospital.

"And sometimes that is what happens. The receiving hospital can't manage the patients because they are overcrowded..., or sometimes the patient may be too unstable," he indicated.

"So, I don't buy that about the doctors, and I certainly don't buy that about the administrators," Dawes stated