Big bacchanal erupts at GPHC Psychiatric Ward

CHAOS erupted at the Male Psychiatric Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) yesterday morning when a male patient apparently ‘tripped’ and began behaving in a disorderly manner.

A female nurse on duty reportedly tried to calm the patient, but this apparently was too much for two of his fellow inmates, who felt that she ought not to have attended to him the way she did, so they intervened on his behalf and verbally abused her.
Having ‘gone to war’ so to speak, the agitated men caused the furore to escalate and it spun out of control in a matter of minutes; and faced with a very precarious situation, the female nurse tried to assert her authority, but that only added fire to the fury.

In a fit of temper, one of the men who had intervened on his friend’s behalf dived under a bed, picked up a pan of urine and threw it onto the nurse, drenching her ‘from head to toe’. Incensed, the other charged towards her in an all out physically attack.

Before the other staff on duty knew it, a vibrant ‘show down’ was in progress. Administrative backup was summoned, and on intervention of security personnel, the men were eventually subdued and the nurse was whisked away to safety.
Asked for a comment, a senior administrator said the situation was regrettable, and outlined that it is the nature of the job that, from time to time, a patient might become aggressive and attempt to either abuse or cause harm to staff interacting with them. For this reason, the official said, management trains the nurses to be prepared for such developments, urging them to be calm and to maintain their cool should the situation spin out of control.

“We train them to always keep their eyes open; and in the case of eventuality, to respond in a manner as would avoid danger or harm being inflicted on themselves or others,” the official said.

This newspaper, however, understands that arrangements are being made to have the three men transferred to the New Amsterdam Psychiatric Home as of today.

(By Shirley Thomas)