Restructuring at the Western Regional Hospital for the New Norm

Belmopan has recorded five cases of the coronavirus and as you heard earlier, one of those cases, a female patient, had to be transferred to the K.H.M.H. in critical condition.  For the past couple months, the Western Regional Hospital has been preparing to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic but with the spread in Belmopan, the situation has become urgent. Today, News Five spoke with Regional Health Manager Doctor Javier Zuniga who says that entrance routes to the hospital compound have also changed and a triage unit has been installed at the entrance.

Javier Zuniga

Dr. Javier Zuniga, Regional Health Manager, Western Health Region

“What we are doing at this moment is moving the entrance from the old area which used to be the entrance to what is now the exit area of the compound. We put it there because it is a strategic area that can access all areas of the hospital from that point and it is a little bit isolated from where we would have congregation of people. So when patients come to the hospital now, they will enter through what was once the exit road for the hospital compound. They will meet a screening booth or triage booth where they will be screened and then they will be directed to other areas of the hospital. So they could either go directly to the flu clinic or the outpatient department or to accident and emergency. The entrance also will now have an area where vehicles could pass over to the parking lot.  What was once the entrance of the hospital will now be used solely for ambulance and emergency entrance to the accident and emergency room. So that will have a direct entrance to that area.”