CONSULTANT Physicians Staff Association president Dr Sabriquet Pinder-Butler says it's "alarming" that Princess Margaret Hospital is at full capacity due to increased COVID-19 cases, but a compounding challenge remains - the lack of human resources in public health.

On Tuesday, PMH Administrator Mary Walker revealed that an increase in COVID-19 cases had left the facility operating at full capacity.

She said the vast majority of patients there and those receiving care at the South Beach Health Centre were not vaccinated.

Responding, Dr Pinder-Butler said this situation is one that should alarm all Bahamians.

She said: “It would mean that there will be challenges with Bahamians needing healthcare in general whether that is emergency care or care for other chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and the like. All of those things are impacted once we’re at this stage as we’ve had happen before.

“So, I think certainly this has to be concerning to all of us and should indicate to us that we are at a critical state in the country as it relates to healthcare and the services that we are able to provide.”

She also referred to a lack of proper resources at healthcare facilities.

This led her to criticise a newly signed $90m contract for infrastructure expansion at PMH and the Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama.

The agreement was signed between the BECK Group and the government. It includes $55m for a maternal and child health tower at PMH and four level tower at the Rand valued at $30.6m.

“…We appreciate the expansions of infrastructure and (are) looking to see how we could improve the hospital in terms of new expansion, but at this point in time I don’t see how we can use funds to do that when we need funds to also keep staff employed,” the senior doctor said.

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