QEH rear gate cleared and secured

After a one hundred-year-old tree was uprooted during Hurricane Elsa, the damage done to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s rear gate has been speedily cleared and secured, says Executive Chairman Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland.

In a statement released by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Bynoe-Sutherland explained that the tree, which had fallen as a result of the hurricane, had damaged the back gate, wall and security hut of the institution and also a vehicle parked in the area.

“We were lucky that as part of the national proprietary efforts, the Barbados Defence Force has a roving team whose job it is to ensure that the arteries into the City remain free for vehicles and emergency access. So they happened upon the incident, pretty soon after it occurred, they were flagged by our security and they immediately set about assisting us. They would have started by cutting some of the limbs that were protruding onto the Constitution Road, and they came back with all of the necessary equipment from the BDF and the MTW to start chopping the tree down and cutting it in pieces,” said Bynoe-Sutherland.

She also explained that the hospital recognised that the gate was an important entry and exit for mainly staff, but also some patients to access the facility. 

“Many people have to bear the tremendous sun on that walk from the bus stand or parts of town, up to the hospital. We thought it would be most unreasonable to ask them to make that further trek to obtain entrance through the front of the hospital. So we would have cleaned up and opened up a gate that leads onto River Road. We now have a temporary security station, where the staff and public can access hospital through a small gate that leads onto River Road. We think this would help tremendously in helping to avoid people having to walk so far,” she said.

Regarding the entry of vehicles that would have used the rear entrance to the faculty, QEH Security Consultant Philip Lewis explained to the media that traffic had to be redirected through the front entrance of Martindale’s Road, through by the new Accident & Emergency extension and to the rear of the hospital.

“The exception obviously would be when the hospital would be taking containers from the big container trucks, they cannot maneuver through the narrow path at the front, so security would remove the barriers to allow them access. That would not be often as it is not an everyday occurrence,” said Lewis. 

The consultant also reassured the public that the same health and safety protocols, which were engaged at the rear entrance previously, were still being used at the small pedestrian gate at the southwestern end of the hospital, where sanatising and temperature checks would be done by security. The perimeter of the hospital will have this temporary access point manned by security and CCTV, while other security mechanisms will be intensified. (AS)