Minister of Health and Wellness, the Hon. Dr. Michael Darville responded to comments made by Bahamas Nurses Union President, Muriel Lightbourn who was reported to have said the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) is in the worst state she has seen in forty years of nursing.
Darville spoke with reporters on the issue outside of the House Of Assembly on Wednesday. He said, “one of the things that we’re seeing as a direct result of shocks because the system is bursting from the seams. This is the reason why in our Blueprint For Change we specifically about two new state of the arm hospitals. And so we must be able to expand spaces where we could provide these services while at the same time continue our drive for man power shortages and to train Bahamians to take their true, full place in the Princess Margaret Hospital and the Rand Memorial Hospital.”
According to the health minister the PMH Accident and Emergency Department was designed to accommodate up to sixty people but has been processing more than one hundred people. “This is the reason why we moved swiftly purchase the Harbourside Hospital so that we can begin now to decompress the Accident and Emergency and decompress the challenges that we currently face at the Princess Margaret Hospital. While that’s being said, very shortly, you’ll see where a contract is awarded for the renovation of the kitchen and the Legacy Ward. And when we’re doing that just as we did with the 150 beds we bought on stream, in the early part of our administration, where we had to use Doctors Hospital west where we could move the patients out to renovate them, a similar procedure will take place at Harbourside Hospital,” Darville said.
