While some can afford to have their loved ones transported via privately sourced ambulances, others must rely on what is publicly available.
That is why, when word spreads that an ambulance would have taken over 30 minutes to respond to an accident scene within walking distance of its point of dispatch, there is a concern.
On March 11, 2022, a review of Emergency Services Unit call logs at the Dr. D. Orlando Smith Hospital revealed that after receiving a call for assistance, it took 36 minutes before the ambulance could be dispatched from the facility, after which it only took 3 minutes to drive to the accident. That brought the total response time of the ambulance to 39 minutes.
While this was the timeline reported by the BVI Health Services Authority (BVIHSA) following the incident, BVIHSA Chairman Moleto Smith has argued that contrary to what was told to the public, such a delay was not reflected in internal reports.
“There are public presentations in terms of what is said and the incident reports that we look at… with each incident, as part of our quality review, we look at all of the incident reports and the incident report doesn’t or didn’t speak to that extent of a delay”, he said.
“Now can things be improved? As always things can be improved. Are we working toward improving them? I am confident that our staff is and that’s part of what I believe is necessary in engaging our community in terms of what we do”, he added.
THE ISSUE SPANS BEYOND AMBULANCES
According to Smith, one of the key issues faced by the public health system as it relates to delivering emergency care is the availability and maintenance of the necessary equipment to support the 24-hour delivery of health services.
“The equipment and maintenance and replacement is part of our ongoing challenge to support a 24-hour facility that has high utilisation. This is across the board for not just the fleet but also with the air conditioning, capital projects and just with keeping a 24-hour giant… This is like a giant cruise ship that has many moving parts that we really have to drill down in a very strategic way to ensure that after we look at things, we put a system and institute a structured process to keep afloat”, he explained.
THE BVI HAS SUFFICIENT AMBULANCES
Could the lack of an adequate number of ambulances in the BVI be a contributing factor? Smith said that the simple answer is no.
When contacted this week the BVIHSA confirmed that a total of 4 ambulances were functional in the territory. Two in Tortola, One in Virgin Gorda and One in Anegada.
And while this may seem insufficient, it is well within World Health Organisation standards which recommend that there should be at least one ambulance per 100,000 residents in flat areas, and one ambulance per 70,000 residents in hilly terrain or areas where a population is scattered.
Smith does admit however, that as it currently stands the public health system of the BVI is not equipped for situations requiring multiple people to be transported.