The Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester is reorganizing its workflows and implementing its surge plan after 34 of its staff members tested positive for COVID 19 in recent days.

The Southern Regional Health Authority in a statement says since March last year,  61 of the  780 hospital staff have contracted the virus.  It adds that 27 have fully recovered and are back at work.

Two microbiologists and a public health team are investigating the circumstances under which 27 members of the operating theatre and High Dependency Unit teams contracted the virus.

The hospital’s CEO Alwyn Miller discloses that investigations revealed that 10 of the active cases are likely to have been contracted outside of the hospital.

Mr. Miller further explains that sanitizing of the operating theatre is guided by the highest established standards, done after each case, and again at the end of each day.

Regional Director, Michael Bent notes that the Mandeville Regional Hospital’s COVID19  20-bed isolation ward is at full capacity; but the regional authority which oversees the hospital had anticipated the challenges of the pandemic and developed a surge plan for the region which covers Manchester, Clarendon and st. Elizabeth in early 2020.

This included the identification of additional beds on and off-site to manage any increase in numbers. The surge plan’s first-tier includes repurposing an additional ward to serve as a

16-bed isolation ward and redistribution of patients who can be managed at other hospitals in the region.

In addition, there is a 30-bed facility at the Kendal Camp and Conference Centre in Manchester, and a 12-bed facility at Font Hill, St. Elizabeth, for recovering patients who do not need hospitalization.

Mr Bent says while the service is stretched, it is not broken, as from the onset of the pandemic, the challenges were anticipated.