Medical personnel at Cornwall Regional Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department suspended their industrial action on Friday following concrete commitments from health authorities to address critical infrastructure and operational challenges. The protest highlighted severe overcrowding, rodent infestations, and hazardous working conditions that have compromised both staff welfare and patient care.
Health and Wellness Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton acknowledged the crisis, attributing the extreme overcrowding to concurrent factors: ongoing renovation works that have reduced available space, a seasonal surge in respiratory illnesses, and residual impacts from Hurricane Melissa which struck in late October 2025. “The challenge is the overcrowding, primarily, and it is being amplified by the renovation,” Minister Tufton stated, confirming that staff are operating under exceptionally demanding circumstances.
Clinical staff provided harrowing accounts of the conditions. Nursing representative Lattar Burke described scenes of patients receiving resuscitation care on floors due to bed shortages, with over 100 patients crammed into a space designed for 35. Anonymous medical professionals reported using beach chairs as makeshift beds and detailed dangerous incidents, including a needlestick injury to a pregnant physiotherapist caused by severely constrained working areas.
Patient Dominic Prince, a resident of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, expressed outrage after signing himself out of the facility, declaring, “I am a human being, not a dog.”
Following emergency meetings, hospital administrators presented a detailed action plan. Clinical Coordinator Dr. Delroy Fray announced the imminent installation of a temporary dome structure within two weeks to accommodate 100-150 additional beds, aiming to restore total capacity to 350 beds. CEO Charmaine Williams Beckford committed to providing staff with regular progress updates over the coming one to three weeks.
Simultaneously, St James public health parish manager Lennox Wallace unveiled a comprehensive rodent eradication program. The $50-million initiative includes extensive baiting and a major cleanup operation in the surrounding Mount Salem community on November 23-24 to address waste accumulation fueling the infestation. Wallace emphasized this would be a sustained six-month program, not a temporary measure.
With these assurances and specific timelines for improvement, medical staff demobilized their protest and returned to their posts, though they maintain vigilance regarding the implementation of promised reforms.