All the concerns raised by the residents were put to Chief Executive Officer of the BVIHSA Ms Darlene Carty-Baptiste who acknowledged that the Health Centre at North Sound is indeed on a limited operation due to the shortage of staff. She, however, has promised a formal response sometime today, October 21, 2015. Photo: VINO/File

In a release published by the BVIHSA on October 16, 2015 East End and Long Look Health Clinics are also on limited opening hours schedule. Photo: Provided

This is a concern to many persons residing and working in the far end community of the sister islands and they have been consistently contacting this news site to have their voices heard. According to one resident who contacted this news site recently, the health centre at North Sound is opened only three days a week, a situation that existed since 2014.

“This is not good. Look the distance North Sound is from Valley. They waiting for a crisis to happen and people die or something before they handle this issue?” asked the female resident. She went on to explained that her concern is not one that is without merit as she knows of several instances where persons suffered because of the time ambulance would take to get from Valley to North Sound.

“We have hundreds of construction and other high risk jobs workers at this end of the island (North Sound), so many times I can recall persons getting injured on the job and their suffering is extended because of the time they have to jostle to get a private vehicle to take them to Valley.”

“The other thing is that this is a peak season for the BVI and hundreds of tourists come to this end of Virgin Gorda and we all know the story, yet we have a health centre that closed for most of the week. This is not right and the [BVI] Health Services [Authority], Cline (Bishop John I. Cline) and the whole pack of them need to address this issue,” added the woman.

Another alleged that a typical situation occurred recently where an elderly person required the services of the ambulance but was told it was not available as it (the ambulance) had limited gas, which had to be reserved for any emergency that may occur in the Valley. “Now tell me, Valley more important than North Sound? How could an ambulance that is supposed to be an emergency response machine have gas shortage?”

Staff shortage

All the concerns raised by the residents were put to Chief Executive Officer of the BVIHSA Ms Darlene Carty-Baptiste who acknowledged that the Health Centre at North Sound is indeed on a limited operation due to the shortage of staff. "North Sound Clinic is open Mondays and Thursdays 8:30am to 4:30pm. A nurse is on call daily, including weekends," Ms Carty-Baptiste stated.

Non-emergency

As it relates to the issue of the unavailability of the ambulance to transport the elderly patient, Ms Carty-Baptiste said that based on her investigations the case was not one of emergency. “According to the staff at the Nurse Iris O'Neal Clinic the patient was brought to the Valley in a private vehicle and wanted the ambulance to take her back to North Sound. The ambulance was out of service for maintenance, hence the patient could not be transported - it was not deemed as an emergency.”

There is no known operation schedule circulated for the operating hours for the North Sound Clinic, however, based on information shared with this news site, the issue of limited opening hours is not isolated to the North Sound community. In a release published by the BVIHSA on October 16, 2015 East End and Long Look Health Clinics are also on limited opening hours schedule.