CTMH Doctors Hospital has begun drive-through testing of frontline workers as part of the new strategy for fighting COVID-19 in the Cayman Islands.
The private hospital got the final sign-off to open its testing lab last week and processed its first samples last Thursday.
Dr. Yaron Rado, chairman of the facility’s board of directors, said Doctors Hospital was slowly ramping up capacity and would soon be able to process hundreds of samples each day.
He said there were no supply chain issues with any equipment, including swabs, extraction kits and chemical reagents used in the testing process. The hospital is fine-tuning its booking and patient-processing system, he added.
The private facility is working to Health Services Authority guidelines on who to test.
The current phase of testing, both for the HSA and the Doctors Hospital, is moving beyond people who have travelled or who have symptoms of the disease to test frontline health workers.
Some of the first people tested at the new lab include the hospital’s own staff and patients.
Once all its staff is tested, the hospital will reopen for elective operations and procedures, set for 1 May.
Rado said staff would be tested every two weeks as part of an ongoing process and all elective surgical patients will be screened for the coronavirus 48 hours prior to their surgery.
Current testing process
The process to get tested currently involves making an appointment with the customer care team or getting checked out at the tented COVID-19 clinic and referred for a test. People then go through a drive-through procedure to get swabbed and the sample is transported to the lab for processing.
Rado said the hospital for now is testing only frontline healthcare workers, as per HSA guidelines. He believes broader testing, including the testing of staff members of entire companies, may be possible in the not-too-distant future.
“We were previously restricted to the World Health Organization guidelines which prioritises people to be tested based on symptoms,” he said, adding that the system was intended to preserve test kits based on need in case of a shortage.
With the arrival of new test kits and the opening of the Doctors Hospital lab, he said there were no longer concerns about there not being enough tests.
“The HSA has ramped up its throughput,” Rado said. “We are just taking the first step, but we will also be ramping up.
“The capacity is no longer an issue. By next month, I expect testing the whole island to be within reach.”
That does not mean it is desirable to test everyone, he said. What it will mean is that public health and economic policies on who and when to test can be drafted from a position of strength.
Reopening for elective surgeries
Doctors Hospital later issued a press release confirming that it would be able to resume elective operations and procedures on 1 May.
“The downward trend in the COVID-19 illnesses reported within the last 14-day period throughout the Cayman Islands indicates that we are in a good position to restart these services,” it stated.
“Doctors Hospital will take every precaution to ensure patients and staff remain safe…
“Our surgical department will be considered a ‘non-COVID care zone’. Staff working in these zones will be limited to working in these areas and not rotate into ‘COVID-19 care zones’. Staff and patients entering these zones will first be tested for COVID-19.”
Initially, elective operations and procedures will take place Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and patients are advised to wear masks.
For COVID-19 tests, call or WhatsApp 325-9000, Monday to Friday, 7am to 6pm.
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