Thankfully, there were no new COVID deaths recorded over the weekend. But, more than 425 persons have died from COVID in the past year, 148 of those in the past two months alone!
But are the high number of deaths recently being driven by specific, avoidable shortages of pharmaceuticals at the country biggest hospital, the KHMH?
Information reaching 7News suggests that could be the case. One example is Midazolam, an anaesthetic. It's widely used in the COVID intensive care unit when patients have to be placed on a ventilator. Doctors tell us it's the preferred anaesthetic because of its rapid onset and it also relaxes airway muscles making it easier to "vent" a patient.
But, the hospital has been without a steady supply of that important drug for weeks now - and, one doctor told us that shortage is costing patients their lives.
The hospital also has a problem with medical monitors. These are the screens that are placed beside hospital beds with a real time readout of all the patient's major vital signs. Well, reports say the hospital recently had to send back 20 of them to the Ministry of Health and Wellness because the screens were freezing. They were defective out the box, but - sources tell us it took months to get replacements from the supplier - and the hospital is still short of the necessary number of this vital monitoring tool.
Now, what's causing the shortages, and where's the bottleneck? Well, the supplies come from the Ministry of Health and Wellness which - we are told - has been lagging or foot dragging in re-supplying the country's biggest hospital.
And, while the KHMH should have its own money to purchase these meds and supplies - if you've been following the news you'll know that government owes them 5 million dollars - so their cash flow is limited until that is paid back. Though, sources tell us, the hospital has been making small purchases as it can afford to, but that's far from adequate.
Of course, our experience and the long observation of hustling in the public healthcare system informs us that whenever supplies get too short - and are urgently needed - the Ministry's medical stores unit activates the "urgent procurement" process to acquire meds without going through tender procedures - which is when the hustle money is made. Again, we have specific knowledge of this from past experience, but certainly hope it is not the case in this situation. What we do know is that there is an acute shortage of life saving med and supplies - that has to be addressed urgently. We'll keep probing for answers.
