Testing Capacity of the Public Health Sector is Inadequate

Victor Rosado

The People’s United Party launched its health plan this morning and we will come to that later in the newscast. This morning, the virtual event included experts in the sector discussing various elements of its blueprint.  But the elephant in the room was the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, there are a myriad of complaints on the handling of the pandemic, primarily on testing and the long delay in the release of results. Doctor Victor Rosado, who practices in the private sector, was among the panellists; he says the testing capacity in the public health sector has to increase three-fold to be able to adequately respond to COVID-19.

Dr. Victor Rosado, Panellist

“Our health system is buckling under the pressure of the new cases. I think we failed to utilize the last three or four months that we had to build up our search capacity. It should have been used to hire new staff, to put in place the resources—both human and physical resources—to deal with more cases. We failed to beef up the district hospitals so we are seeing district hospitals are sending all their moderate and severe cases to Karl Heusner and Karl Heusner is being overwhelmed. And so I definitely think that we are struggling and this is nto over. This second wave will get bigger because our testing capacity is also failing. So we have some difficult times ahead. The fact that we have to wait on an average of five days, sometimes up to seven days, for tests results, renders the tests almost useless. As you can see, the last patients are being confirmed after they pass away. So that gives you an idea that for medical decisions, the tests are useless for doctors. If a doctor at Karl Heusner doesn’t know into which ward to transfer the patient because we don’t have a confirmed positive case. I think our testing capacity has to increase by three-fold. And for us to get a hold of this outbreak, we really need to increase testing capacity. If we do not increase testing capacity, my guess is that the number of cases will keep rising.”