There are suggestions that industrial action by nurses last week may have largely contributed to the death of a patient, a matter which some say is being covered up. CVM has been receiving information the man jumped from a floor at the facility at a time when some nurses had stayed off the job. It seems the nurses' industrial action helped yield a casualty. Highly placed sources told CVM news that a patient was admitted to KPH's neurological ward last week with head injuries. He was placed in restraints on the ward, which is located on the third floor. Our newsroom was further informed that sometime on Wednesday, his restraints were loosened by a female relative; a turn of events which facilitated the patient wandering from his bedside and subsequently jumping or falling to his death. It's not yet known how the patient was able to leave the ward and access the area where he fell from. But we were told that as a result of the industrial action by the nurses, no registered nurses were manning that particular ward and it was left to the supervision of enrolled nurses and ward assistants. CVM news was also reliably informed that on that particular day, only about 10 registered nurses were working at the entire hospital. This despite the assurance from board director of the south east regional health authority that contingency measures had been taken by the management of the hospitals, to prevent a disruption in health care delivery at affected hospitals.
Our newsroom understands that when it was discovered that the man had jumped from the building, he was quickly taken to the casualty department where he was pronounced dead. The health ministry has since confirmed that the incident did take place but explained that it's under investigation. Ironically, we were told that on the same day, the father of entertainer, Fancy Cat, also jumped to his death at the University Hospital of the West Indies. In his case, we were told that a nurse tried to restrain him, but was unsuccessful. But while there is remorse from some parties about the KPH incident, some to a larger extent blame the government for not dealing fairly with the nurses who expressed their anger by calling in sick for about three days.