Senior Reporter
akash.samaroo@cnc3.co.tt
North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) Chief Executive Officer Davlin Thomas gave an assurance yesterday that repairs to elevators at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital would be completed by last night and would be ready for use by staff and patients today.
He said problems with the elevators were caused by “a source problem that’s coming from the material of the cable used to move the elevator up and down. Some fragments of that affected the controls so they needed to replace some parts.”
President of the T&T Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) Idi Stuart said he was informed that the two elevators began malfunctioning last week Monday and they were temporarily fixed before the Independence Day holiday.
Thomas explained that the temporary fix involved resetting the elevators until the malfunctioning part could be replaced. However, there were some prolems which left only one elevator in operation.
Stuart pointed out that one elevator is not ideal in a hospital setting.
“They had to use it for both clean and dirty which means, patients, staff, food which was really unsanitary,” he explained.
He said nurses were apprehensive about using the elevators after a female employee claimed that it “dropped” while she was inside of it.
Thomas claimed the malfunctioning elevators had only minimal impact on hospital operations.
“There were I think two C-sections that we had to hold for an hour until we made sure it was safe but we did not have any emergencies that required the elevator because the emergency department is on the ground floor,” he said.
But Stuart said there have been issues with the elevators for most of the year and the latest disruptions restricted bedridden patients from being placed on wards. It also forced management to open a temporary ward on the ground floor.
Thomas said the elevators are fairly new (seven years old) and addressing the issues with the elevator cable wire is a long-term fix.
