MINISTER OF HEALTH PREPARES FOR CARNIVAL

CCNTV6

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is appealing to  the population not to  abandon their elderly at hospital in order to play Mas.  According to the Minister during the Carnival period medical facilities may experience an increase in patient intake and they need beds freed to accommodate them.  This as part of the Ministry's Carnival Disaster Preparedness plan.  More from Nicole ok M Romany.

Transcript

00:00Minister Terence DL Singh stresses the importance of having sufficient bed

00:05capacity in the event of a surgeon cases of injury or critical incidents. As such

00:10he is admonishing persons not to place their relatives or charges in hospital

00:15so that they can participate in carnival festivities. Please desist this year from

00:22abandoning your elderly parents and grandparents and children in the

00:27hospital so you can go and play mass. We estimate every year it takes up about

00:33150 to 300 beds. Now could you imagine that you're abandoning your elderly, you

00:40abandoning your children so you could play mass. Not only does it take up

00:45beds, it costs the taxpayers money because we have to do blood work still

00:50doctors have to come, nurses have to come, meals have to come. The minister is

00:54further urging people to get immunized before the mad rush of activities

00:59reaches its peak. Influenza season when the virus is circulated in North America

01:05England Europe they come down here for carnival with people. They hop on

01:11you as a person and they ride free and they come down here in first class right.

01:16Make use of the influenza vaccines now. You have a window of opportunity until

01:24around February the 14th to be vaccinated because the vaccination takes

01:30about two weeks for the immune response. Minister Dyalsing is also calling on the

01:35population to assist with blood donations. He says the blood must be

01:40tested and cannot be used immediately and as such the earlier one donates the

01:45better for those in need. If there is a surge incident, if we need blood, the

01:51blood is there. The public sometimes feels that I take blood from me now and

01:58I could transfuse it into you within minutes. No, it doesn't work like that. We

02:02have to test that blood against a panel of six is about six or eight

02:07transmissible diseases. That takes hours, that could take a day. So whilst you in a

02:14critical state needing blood, somebody may be given blood now but that blood

02:19cannot be used until it's been tested. So to overcome that, I'm appealing to the

02:24public, try and give blood now. Also on the interview was Chief Executive

02:28Officer for the North Central Regional Health Authority, Devlin Thomas.

02:34Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended