Call to look at drive-thru testing
THE TIME HAS COME for Barbados’ health authorities to explore setting up drive thru testing facilities for the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was among the recommendations made by the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) first vice-president and spokesperson on small business and health, Ryan Walters, who, during his party’s online discussion on Sunday, charged that Government “is moving fast without thinking”.
“…When you look at the clusters forming, there may be additional need now to do more testing, more contact tracing. The Ministry of Health should also consider setting up facilities of drive-thru testing, where they’re not allowing persons to actually come to a facility, walk in, line up, queue up, touch, walk close to one another, and so forth, to stop the gatherings.
“There’s enough space around that we can have actually have a couple drive thru test facilities where it actually isolates persons as well,” Walters said.
He, along with DLP president Verla De Peiza, second vice-president Andre Worrell, and member of the general council Courie Coz, examined the topic COVID-19: Time To Reset.
Walters also said that whereas Government had identified the super spreader event, the country could have faced another on Saturday by asking “everyone to go to one polyclinic” (Eunice Gibson in Warrens).
“They have to think through their actions and what we’re seeing playing out now is poor planning. . . . They’re in the same mode they were in back in April of 2020 and they have not scaled up their preparedness and their readiness.
“The Ministry of Health and Wellness, it’s one thing to focus on the persons that would be affected by COVID, but how do we protect regular citizens who are at risk?” he asked.
He is calling for the introduction of “specific testing programmes” for staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the Geriatric Hospital and private care facilities for elderly as well as telemedicine.
Continuous testing
“We need to have a programme where there is some level of continuous testing or an overview, because those are the persons that are in charge of the most vulnerable in our society. That needs to be done with immediacy.
“We have to make sure that persons are tracking their blood pressure, their blood sugar. How can we give them the devices at a low cost that they themselves can do some level of monitoring at home? How can we introduce technology as well into the mix where persons can communicate with their doctors or their physicians and nurses using technology to communicate the readings, communicate how they’re doing and so forth, as opposed to commuting and congregating at the hospital or polyclinics?” Walters said.
He also suggested that “sustainable solutions to help to prevent the spread of the disease” and keep people at home, including the sick and more vulnerable, must be worked on.
Governments should also speak with retailers about reducing the costs of blood pressure and blood sugar devices, he said.
(GBM)
RYAN WALTERS (FP)
