Malfunctioning central air conditioning at the Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre may see nurses at the country’s sole public hospital stage sickouts this week in protest over intense heat they say they have been experiencing for more than a month.
Medical staff say they have been under distress in recent weeks due to the broken central air system, especially in areas where there are no windows, and having to attend to patients who have been drenched in sweat.
Nurses were recently informed that it could take another 10 days to have the system working again.
Observer media has been reliably informed that hospital bosses have provided fans for the worst affected areas within the facility to mitigate against the heat.
In addition, they have also decided to reduce work hours for employees not directly involved in patient care.
However, some nurses have expressed dissatisfaction with this decision, stating that it does not address the root cause of their concerns.
Hospital officials were approached for comment.
“We know it’s tough, we don’t want our staff to have to work under these conditions,” a spokesperson said. “We are working very hard to fix it and as much as possible are coming up with creative solutions to try to alleviate some of the problems. We don’t want to see strike action; we are asking for patience from our team members and hope to rectify this as soon as possible.”
She added, “There is no amount of thanks we can say to our team for coming in every day under these conditions; we are very grateful that they continue to do so.”