Spanish Town Hospital Probing Improper Handling Of Infectious Waste At Maternity Ward
Bags of infectious waste placed outside the maternity ward of the Spanish Town Hospital – Via Twitter @ConsumerJamaica
Danae Hyman, Online Reporter
The Spanish Town Hospital is now probing reports that infectious waste generated by the facility was recently left unattended outside the maternity ward.
The issue was highlighted in a tweet by Consumers Intervention of Jamaica.
“Is that what we are exposing our pregnant women and newborns to?” the tweet questioned.
In response, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton tweeted “mischief”.
According to the minister, the waste was placed outside the ward during cleaning of the facility and was removed shortly after.
“When you take a picture of a work in progress it does not signalise neglect, it signalises that something is happening but a still picture will not reflect that and also picture is not always what it appears,” Tufton later told The Gleaner.
However, Consumers Intervention of Jamaica says the picture was taken two hours after the waste was first observed.
This afternoon, Dwayne Francis, the chief executive officer of the Spanish Town Hospital said the medical waste should not have been placed outside the maternity ward in the first place.
According to him, sanitation workers are expected to retrieve the infectious waste from the wards and place it in the red bins provided by the waste management plant near the maternity ward.
“It is not the norm for them to do this kind of stuff, it may be a case of they were taking them down and just placed it down quickly but leaving it on the ground is not the way we operate,” Francis said.
He said the hospital management wants establish what went wrong and warned that anyone found wanting will be held accountable.
People love making mischief.