The future of the Harrison Point Isolation Centre is yet to be decided, but a proposal is on the table for it to be converted to an end-of-life care facility.
While COVID-19 patients are still being treated at the St Lucy location, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr the Most Honourable Jerome Walcott said that with millions having been spent to establish the facility, the Government had to determine whether it would serve as a public or private medical institution in time to come.
He was speaking in the well of Parliament on Wednesday as the Estimates debate continued.
Chief Executive Officer of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland, who was among health care officials who joined Dr Walcott, further disclosed that while short-term use of the isolation centre was under consideration, long-term use of it as an end of life palliative care institution was being examined.
“As a hospital, we have put forward in our estimates that we can assist both the situation in A&E [Accident & Emergency] and improve the quality of care in certain areas by using it in the immediate to short term for areas of the hospital,” she said.
“A particular need has arisen not just at the hospital but across the health system for palliative care…. There are patients in the hospital for whom treatment modalities have come to an end and they are now in need of palliation – basically, that is treatment to manage end of life and to allow persons to have a quality end of life. Many of those patients end up being in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on wards, which is less than ideal in terms of the end-of-life situation.
“So we’ve put forward proposals for use of the facility for palliative care, particularly in the area of oncology and in the area of heart disease and other ailments,” the hospital CEO added.
Bynoe-Sutherland also said consideration was also being given to allowing patients with orthopaedic injuries requiring long-term rehabilitation to be treated at the facility.
(JB)
The post QEH proposes COVID-19 centre be converted into end-of-life facility appeared first on Barbados Today.