Western Jamaica calls for trauma-care centre

Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:

While Negril and Lucea, the two most western townships in Jamaica, continue to grapple with hundreds of trauma cases annually, there is still no trauma centre to provide immediate care for persons within the Negril-Lucea geographical area.

In 2012, the Lucea and Negril emergency medical services (EMS) centres combined attended to 69 per cent of the 603 trauma cases to which the nation's six EMS centres responded, as well as 58 per cent of 473 motor-vehicle accidents; 42 per cent of the obstetrics cases; and 42 per cent of medical calls, which totalled 1,574. Four other EMS centres operate in the island at Falmouth, Trelawny; Ironshore, St James; Linstead, St Catherine; and Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

Chairman of the Negril-Green Island Planning Authority, Cliff Reynolds, says a trauma centre is long overdue for the area, and any parcel of land within the Green Island area in Hanover would be ideal as that area is midway between Lucea and Negril. The tourist town of Negril straddles the parishes of Westmoreland and Hanover and hosts 26 per cent of visitors to the island annually.

URGENT NEED

"At this stage, we need to move expeditiously to establish a short-term trauma centre at a central point for the people of western Hanover and western Westmoreland. Also, we would never want to have an incident happen to, especially, a tourist, and we only respond after the fact," Reynolds said.

He was supported by head of Hanover Fire Department's EMS, District Officer Taleeni Francis. He told Western Focus that casualties from traffic accidents, violence, and other mishaps which occur between Negril and Lucea, after being taken to the Noel Holmes Hospital in Lucea, have to be transferred to the trauma centre at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay.

He said in the event that the Negril EMS responds, patients are taken to the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital as the resort town has no hospital.

"Based on the number of cases the EMS has to deal with, the best solution in the interest of residents is for a trauma-care centre to be established at a point midway Orange Bay and Green Island because directly, you would be able to move the patient to a trauma centre where they can get the treatment immediately as time is of the essence when dealing with a trauma patient.

"Lucea is our drop-off point in Hanover, and when the Noel Holmes medical staff stabilises the patient in terms of IV lines and helps to better immobilise the patient, they still have to send that patient to Cornwall Regional, so the timeframe between that patient getting the right treatment can hinder his recovery process," Francis said.

He added that resort areas like Negril are considered high risk by the emergency services due to the large number of people likely to be present there at any given time.

Vacation Area

"The fact that it is a vacation area, persons are drinking (alcohol), enjoying themselves in terms of riding jet skis, renting cars, riding motor bikes, and so they are more susceptible to accidents. A critical patient has to be monitored every five minutes in terms of checking vital signs, while with a normal patient, you do that every 15 minutes, so the longer you take to get them to the trauma centre, it then becomes a problem for that patient.

"It takes approximately 20 minutes for an ambulance from Lucea to get to Cornwall," he added. "From Negril, it takes approximately an hour, depending on the condition of the patient, because if the patient has sustained a serious head injury or chest injuries, you may not be able to move them as far based on the terrain and the road conditions."

Winston Wellington, operator of the Travellers Beach Resort in Negril, has gone a step further and is spearheading plans for the construction of the US$200 million Negril International Hospital.

"I have seen too many people lose their lives between here and the nearest hospital due to the number of accidents that we have had right in front of Travellers Beach Resort over the 20 years I've been here," Wellington said.