-over 85% of COVID-19 cases isolated there, facility divided into four sections

DOCTORS, nurses and other frontline workers, who work at the Diamond Hospital, have been “going beyond the call of duty” to deliver care to persons who contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease.

The care being delivered is, however, not just the traditional medical care, but also that of a parent or guardian. Regional Health Officer (RHO) of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Dr. Quincy Jones, found the need to justify the work of frontline workers at Diamond, after Stabroek News had published an article titled “COVID-19 patients fear poor conditions at Diamond Isolation Unit delaying recovery.”

Dr. Jones, in a press statement, said the article contained several half-truths and fallacies, which were repeated without evidence to support it. “We are truly disappointed that instead of celebrating the very hard and dedicated work of the doctors and nurses who leave their homes and live in the unit to provide medical care and other services to these patients for weeks at a time, we are instead forced to pen a response to an article such as the one mentioned above,” lamented the RHO.

Frontline workers at the Diamond facility started working overtime, after a COVID-19 isolation unit was established there. And according to Dr. Jones, since the establishment of the unit, the facility has been taking most of the confirmed COVID-19 patients, with the largest number being 52 cases at one time, a figure which was recorded just Sunday.

There are currently 66 active cases of COVID-19 and the persons, housed at Diamond, represent over 85 per cent of the total active cases. The work of frontline workers has so far resulted in 30 persons recovering and being discharged from the facility, since the pandemic reached Guyana. To date, a total of 45 persons have recovered from the COVID-19 disease.

Clearly established and defined systems compounded by the commitment of frontline workers, resulted in the Diamond Hospital producing more 65 per cent of the recovered patients.

In talking about the systems in place, Dr. Jones said the unit is divided into four sections, each with its own toilet and bath, and each provided with the hand soap, either in the dispensers or in bottles with dispensing tops and toilet paper. As with admission to any other hospital facility, health officials at Diamond would have expected persons to have any other toiletries they would need such as sanitary napkins, deodorant, shampoo, bath soaps and so forth, all of which are not routinely supplied by the hospital.

Cleaning supplies are also not routinely given to the patients, since the unit has three persons who visit the facility on a daily basis, to clean the building and wash the dirty linens.
“These persons are supplied with those items. Garbage is removed daily from the patient’s building, double bagged and sprayed with disinfectant and then completely removed from the compound by two porters,” said Dr. Jones.

There were, however, instances where doctors had to clear garbage from the yard because patients chose to dump food boxes and other items over the rails instead of in the bins provided. And, Dr. Jones said cleaners complained of patients stuffing food items down the sinks and bathroom, causing the water to accumulate in the showers.

He said there was even a complaint of fecal matter being found on the floor and smeared on the walls in one of the female blocks. The cleaners also complained of finding the hand soap provided smeared on the floors in the shower. As it relates to water supply, the Diamond hospital and the isolation unit depend on the same water supply.

“As you can imagine the increased demand for water would put some strain on the supply system causing some issues. As far as we know, this has happened twice and both times a plumber was promptly called in to rectify the matter, the last occasion however there was an issue where the pump developed a leak, so enough water was not getting up to the tanks. That has since been corrected,” Dr. Jones clarified.

Patients are also directly protected, as there is security on site and the door to every room is locked. The RHO said patients were furnished with a key to their room upon admission, however, many patients would have misplaced their keys, and had to have the lock broken.
“Other patients would have been discharged and left with the keys to the rooms they were occupying, and those locks had to be broken as well. The hospital does not employ a carpenter, as such, finding someone who is willing to go into the building to repair or replace those locks is difficult,” he lamented, adding:

“Our doctors and nurses already are functioning as garbage men and women, concierges, waiters, and waitresses it would be ridiculous to ask them to repair a broken lock. It is because of this fact that we would have advised patients to remain either inside of your rooms so that you can keep an eye on your personal belongings. COVID-19 is a highly-contagious disease, the only persons who can safely guard their personal belongings are the patients themselves.”

Patients are also furnished with face masks three times a day and upon request. And, none of the medical staff at the Diamond facility, reuses face masks, said Dr. Jones.
“The safety of our medical professionals and patients is of utmost concern and as such each time a professional goes into the isolation building and comes back out he/she has to undergo a complete decontamination process. “They are sprayed with disinfectant solution from head to toe prior to taking off the protective gear, then again after those gears are discarded, then they proceed directly to the shower where they are expected to bathe from head to toe for a minimum of 12 to 15 minutes,” Dr. Jones explained.

Finally, on the issue of test results, the RHO said is not one that is handled by the Diamond isolation unit. The samples are taken off and sent to the National Reference lab for testing.
“They are the ones who process the results and then feed the information back to us regarding who can be discharged. Until we get those results in hand, we cannot discharge the patients. For them to be issued with the certificate of clearance to return to their homes and families we need to have two negative tests at least 24 hours apart in hand,” said Dr. Jones.

He said many patients do not understand this concept and work themselves up because of it, but it is explained constantly.