Restaurant Associates denies tardiness in effort to secure overseas treatment for employee burnt in Wednesday's fire

Lisa Lake, Group CEO of Restaurant Associates Limited is insisting that the company has been making every effort to ensure the best medical assistance is provided for one of the company's employees who was badly burnt in the explosion and fire at its New Kingston Burger King franchise on Wednesday.

 

Miss Lake was responding on Friday to claims by relatives of the woman that the company was not responding to her situation with the urgency required.

 

Renay Johnson, sister of the victim, revealed that the family has secured a facility overseas with the help of a local foundation that assists burn victims and now only need the airfare to get her the urgent care she needs.

 

But Miss Lake said, contrary to the claim of tardiness on its part, the company offered to have the employee airlifted to a facility overseas to receive specialised care.

 

She added that a wire transfer was set up to facilitate the airlift, pending a note from the doctor stating that the patient was cleared to be moved as the treatment would not be available locally.

 

"Since then, I've been sitting here waiting and our Accounts team has been sitting here waiting to press send on the wire transfer, once that letter was received, so I'm a bit surprised to have received this report that they are seeking support from the public," she said on Friday's edition of Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines.

 

She added that another of the affected employees was transferred to the Tony Thwaites Wing at the University Hospital of the West Indies.