Clare Hall Clinic has been temporarily closed to patients after flooding disrupted regular operations there for the second day yesterday.
Nurses who had been bemoaning its condition and refusing to work are being relocated to other health facilities pending repairs.
On Monday, staff at the community clinic reportedly turned up for work to find the building flooded – an issue said to have been recurring intermittently for several months – and things were not much better when they arrived on Tuesday morning.
According to nursing personnel assigned there, they were not able to perform their duties on either day due to the water, which was even said to be running out of light switches on the walls.
“When I came in this morning, they had to be turning away clients. One client had an elevated blood pressure and blood sugar, and had to be taken to the hospital. So, I guess they assess the magnitude of the situation when the clients come and then they can decide whether to refer them to another clinic. [The clients] can’t enter the clinic, because of all the water that’s [inside].
“There are also charts being placed in boxes, with no protection, and the water is coming from the roof. So, if they get wet, that’s records that they can’t replace,” Vice President of the Antigua and Barbuda Nurses Association (ABNA), Arlea Gregory, told Observer yesterday.
While the situation facing the Clare Hall Clinic is undoubtedly unfortunate, what it cannot be described as is new, as community clinics across the island have been suffering from chronic infrastructure and resource challenges.
A few years ago, the Gray’s Farm and Johnson’s Point Clinics were both hit with flooding, the former due to a leaking roof, which similarly affected services to clients in the area.
And it’s not just flooding that is posing a problem. Facilities like the Old Road Clinic – which is one of many to have been shut down to facilitate repair work some years ago – have had to deal with issues like mould (which the nurses at Clare Hall can relate to) and rat infestations.
“There’s visible mould on the walls of the clinic…also, there is a situation where the bathroom is unusable.
“The nurses have been dealing with this for months and I guess this morning it’s too much on them now. I don’t see how they can continue to work under these conditions – they go to use the bathroom, there’s water dripping in their hair and they don’t know where the water is coming from,” Gregory explained.
The neonatal nurse also had this plea when asked what message she would like to send to those in charge, considering the gravity of the situation.
“I would just like them to try to fix the health centres. It’s not only for the nurses; what about the clients in the area? There are elderly clients who are unable to travel from one village to the next, from one district to the next, to see a doctor or nurses.
“Nurses have been feeling demotivated for years and we keep trying to keep them going, but we can do so much and no more, our hands are tied. We can speak for them, we can have meetings, we can send letters, but we can’t actually do what needs to be done on our own,” she added.
The Health Ministry has repeatedly pledged to make efforts to address the issues plaguing the community clinics across the island but, as many nurses complain, those promises are taking far too long to be fulfilled.