Healthcare workers returning to work from COVID-19 isolation

 

Staff shortages at public hospitals across Jamaica are expected to ease this week as some nurses and doctors who were in isolation and quarantine due to COVID-19, are returning to work.

 

Patsy Edwards Henry, President of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ),  said the number of nurses out sick up to Wednesday was approximately 200, with about 70 per cent COVID-19 positive.

 

But she said at her last check on Friday the figure had started to decline. 

 

"[C]oming out of a meeting with the senior administrators, we realized that the numbers are tapering down in terms of illnesses. So, a number of the persons who were out are now returning to work," Mrs Edwards Henry told Radio Jamaica News. 

 

However, she lamented that some nurses "seem to be having to take a longer time to come back to work than others".

 

The NAJ president said the Ministry of Health has given a commitment for a faster turnaround time for COVID-19 test results for healthcare workers.

 

The Medical Association of Jamaica has said the revised isolation protocols for healthcare workers has helped to speed up their return to the system. 

 

"Right now, it is down to 10 days. If you're whether asymptomatic or symptomatic, you can be out for up to 10 days. At day seven, if you have been asymptomatic for more than three days, you can actually do a test, and if it's negative you can come back. So, it can be as much as 50% less than the number of days you had to stay out 'cause that had to be 14 days before," he explained. "So that really has caused an improvement in that part of the equation. What we are hoping for is an improvement in the other side of the equation, which is the number of people who are turning up in hospital." 

                            

The Ministry of Health reported last week that more than 600 healthcare workers have been infected with COVID-19 and had to stay away from the job in the current surge.