…following colleague’s death while on the job

By Vanessa Braithwaite

NURSES attached to the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) are pressing for enhanced packages mostly about safety and protection among other issues, following the death on Saturday of one of their colleagues, Eon Reddock, while on duty.

Reddock, 37, of South Amelia’s Ward was one of two persons who died early Saturday morning when the ambulance in which he was travelling collided head-on with a motorcar on the Amelia’s Ward Public Road. The other person was the diver of the motorcar, 18-year-old Tristan Clarke, of New Scheme, Amelia’s Ward, who was reportedly on his way home when the accident occurred, after attending a function in Wismar.

Reddock, on the other hand, was returning to Linden in the ambulance, after taking a patient to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Two colleagues of his, who were also in the ambulance, were critically injured in the accident.

For want of immediate action in light of the foregoing development, the nurses reportedly raised their concerns with the Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice) Industrial Relations Officer of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), Maurice Butters, who said he fully supports a planned go-slow, which is expected to commence today. The nurses have warned, however, that if they do not receive any positive feedback from the relevant authorities by the end of the day, they will go into full-blown strike mode tomorrow.
They also claim that despite Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence paid a visit to the hospital on Saturday to commiserate with staff on the passing of their colleague, they were unable to raise their concerns with her at that forum.

Minister Lawrence, paid both families a visit and expressed her deepest condolences to them. She was joined by other senior staff of the Ministry of Health and Regional Officials including Regional Chairman, Renis Morian. Lawrence then visited the Linden Hospital where she emphasised the need for specialised services such as CT scanning at all Regional Hospitals, to avoid medical personnel having to travel to the city, to accompany patients who need to access these services.

COMPREHENSIVE PACKAGE
Butters said that the nurses are calling for a comprehensive package that will cover all loose ends relative to their general duty, but more particularly to their having to accompany patients to the GPHC, as Reddock had done when he met his demise, or in some cases from the Kwakwani Hospital to Linden.

They’re are calling, Butters said, for risk allowances to be incorporated in the package, as well as for the ambulances to be insured. “There is no insurance to cover them; if anything happen to them, they are on their own,” Butters said. “We have been calling for this a long time, and it is sad that we have to wait until somebody die to run around the place and start making promises,” he added.

He is contending that not only should nurses who transfer patients to be given risk benefits, but so, too, should those exposed to psychiatric patients and communicable diseases by handling blood work in the laboratory. Nurses are also calling for the transfer of patients to be better evaluated, since, in many cases, when they do get to the GPHC, the doctors there claim that there was no need for the patient to be transferred.
A case in point was the patient that Reddock had taken to the GPHC. The nurses related that the accident could have been avoided, had the transfer been done earlier in the day. “Since early in the morning before my shift end, they talking about transferring the patient, and they ‘dilly-dally’ and wait until night to do the transfer,” one nurse said, on condition of anonymity.

“We are saying there was not a need to transfer in the first place; and even so, it could have been done in the day, when it was safer. If that was done, Reddock could have been alive today,” she said.

BETTER POLICIES
Butters, who is also a director on the LHC Board, is calling for a better policy or system of transfer. The nurses themselves are calling for transfers to be done during the day, except in cases of emergencies.

During her visit to the LHC on Saturday, Minister Lawrence stressed the need for specialised services such as CT-scanning to be made available at all regional hospitals, so as to avoid the need for transferrals, thus exposing staff members to danger. She said that at the policy level, moves are being made to have these services available at the hospitals at reference. “That is why we are fighting to make every region self-sufficient,” she told staff. “We would prefer to bring the specialists to make every region self-sufficient; we would prefer to bring the specialists to the hospital and not be transferring our patients from one region to the other… Instead of having our staff flying down the road at the wee hours of the morning and putting their lives on the line.”

Butters, on the other hand, feels it is more important for the specialists to be sent with the equipment, since there are cases where units are set up, but no one is there to operate them. “Look, for instance, in Kwakwani,” he said. “There is an x-ray unit, but no x-ray technician. And nurses still have to be travelling with patients through the trail to do x-rays at LHC.”

At the LHC, systems are being implemented to establish critical units such as a CT scanning unit and a dialysis unit. The rooms have already been set up, and very soon these services are expected to be rolled out.

And in the case of genuine emergencies, where patients have to be transferred, nurses are calling for a more spacious ambulance to be made available, since the ones currently in use are uncomfortable and unsafe. “They are calling for the nurse to be at the back with the patient, but we does be very uncomfortable, because the vehicles they are using are not designed to transport patients,” one nurse said. “It is not a very pleasant situation to travel like that; and it is not safe either,” she added.
Butters claims there is a serious issue with the management of LHC, and that matters to be addressed at that level are not being done. Presently, the hospital’s Board is not functional. When contacted on Monday, LHC’s Administrative Manager Michelle Bollers said that management is well aware of the issues affecting the nurses, more so given recent developments, and that they are working on making representation for them. “We are working on a report to be submitted as early as 08:00hrs tomorrow,” she said.

DILIGENT WORKER
Butters described Reddock as a very diligent worker. He said that while at the time of his death he was serving on the maternity ward, he would have served in almost all of the other wards and departments, and therefore would have come into contact with most of the staff members. “His disposition as a nurse caused many persons to gravitate towards him,” Butters said, adding: “He was a jovial person. He never refused to do anything; he was well liked.”
Ambulance attendant Shoma Douglas, who was injured in the accident, has been transferred to GPHC and will undergo surgery tomorrow. The driver of the ambulance, Ranetse Paul, who was also injured, has been discharged from the hospital.