No major operations were required for the injured victims of the massacre in Cherry Tree Lane, Four Paths, Clarendon, last Sunday. By last Thursday, only two of those admitted to the Accident and Emergency Department of May Pen Hospital had been admitted.

But this tragedy – believed to be the first of its magnitude in Jamaica’s gang history – has heightened ongoing concerns among staff at the facility, who have long complained about a lack of equipment, hospital beds, staff and transportation, particularly in a community where gunshot wounds from violent gang conflicts are common.

Four days after the gruesome attack, Dr. Bradley Edwards, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said the surge in patients last Sunday night tested the hospital’s protocols for treating mass casualties, depleting resources such as painkillers and drugs to control severe bleeding and, most importantly, highlighting a severe shortage of hospital staff and beds at the facility.

To make matters worse, the municipality in the center of the island is a recurring victim of accidents and gunshot wounds. Since the beginning of the year, 41 murders and 41 shootings have been registered in the municipality up to August 3.

Many of these victims required emergency surgery and hospital beds.

“They (trauma cases) require a significant amount of resources, both from the hospital and the individuals (victims) in terms of time and space. That’s one of the sad things about not having enough staff to support people,” Edwards said, citing the heavy physical and emotional toll on staff who must deal with the frequent car accident and gunshot wound trauma cases that are admitted to the hospital.

Unlike in other countries where staff are laid off after certain gruesome incidents, May Pen Hospital does not have this luxury. The reason is that the demand for their presence is relentlessly high. So is the demand for beds.

“Currently, the demand for beds in the hospital is so high that many patients are staying in the emergency department waiting for an opportunity to be admitted to the ward. When our emergency department is full, we have to move patients around until we can sort something out,” he continued. “The hospital emergency department is quite understaffed and right now is not necessarily a good time to come to the hospital with trauma.”

Meanwhile, hospital staff remain on edge. Many of them live in communities enmeshed in a bloody web of gang violence. Now Edwards hopes the Department of Health can take steps to provide transportation for staff.

“If we could get one or more staff buses to pick people up from their homes and take them to work at night, that would be something we would want,” Edwards said. The Sunday Gleaner.

Last Friday, Health Minister Christopher Tufton expressed his condolences to hospital staff and noted that other public facilities had been established in the township to ease the burden on May Pen. In addition, structural extensions are planned for the hospital and other health facilities in the township, Tufton added.

“The truth is that in cases where there are multiple traumas, there will most likely be delays. We don’t normally have 17 people shot in one incident, and so no matter how high the staffing levels normally are, we will have to call in backup or call people in. And with hospital beds, there will be increased space requirements depending on the type of trauma,” he explained.

As a result, Chapelton Hospital has been reopened and Lionel Town Hospital has also been expanded, as it now has more doctors and offers a range of services. There are also plans to expand May Pen Hospital as part of a program with the Inter-American Development Bank.

“It is difficult to plan and predict and allocate staff and (multiple beds) for gunshot wound victims simultaneously, as these victims require operating room time, emergency surgery and, if necessary, intensive care,” the health minister continued.

“So you have to consider this as an exceptional case and I hope that something like this will not happen too often,” he said, noting that arrangements such as the transport of staff are negotiated between hospitals and their respective regional authorities.

[email protected]