CRISIS IN HEATLH CARE: DUANE SANDS MUST GO

In any other civilized country, Duane Sands would have been sacked by now if he did not have the decency to resign.  He should not be the Minister of Health or  in the Cabinet, having regard to his conduct, judicially condemned in the Frank Smith case.  But he is still there trying to redeem himself but it has flopped and failed miserably. The announcement is that some 200 health care professionals are now in quarantine because the Government, the Public Hospitals Authority made a freshman’s mistake. They  did not take the precaution of instructing themselves that in this present situation, you must presume that all patients who present at the hospital are  Covid 19 positive. That means from the  time they present, you ought to be wearing protective equipment. The problem is even if the folks at PMH wanted to do it, the government had not ordered enough and so it could not be done.  The fact is it was not done.  The result is a patient presented, even though a Covid 19 suspect, test was applied and the patient put on the ward.  Turns out the patient was positive so now the entire ward is shut down, the people who the patient were in contact with including doctors and nurses are all off line because of that rookie mistake. It is not usually the Minister’s fault these kinds of logistical issues but Duane Sands stood before the Bahamian people and said the country was ready and it is clear that we were not, are not and are woefully unprepared. For that the Minister must take responsibility.  He did not prepare for this and he did to tell the truth to the country about the unpreparedness.