DPU prepares for patients

Monday 18 May 2020

Work has started to put Guernsey's Day Patient Unit back to 'normal' so more routine admissions can resume at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.

It was closed earlier this year so it could be refurbished as a 'hot ICU' as the corona virus pandemic took a hold of Europe and headed for the Bailiwick.

With the first covid-19 patient testing positive in early March, and a further 251 patients later being confirmed to have the potentially fatal virus, the additional resources were needed so that the PEH wasn't overrun with people needing critical care which it couldn't provide.

By yesterday there were only five active cases of covid-19 left confirmed in the Bailiwick. While there have been 13 corona virus linked deaths, and a further three presumptive covid-19 linked deaths, the PEH hasn't seen a huge influx of patients needing intensive care treatment over the past couple of months.

With the Bailiwick having successfully contained and delayed the spread of the virus through its lockdown measures, the decision was taken last week to start reinstating the Day Patient Unit.

Pictured: Dr Peter Rabey.

It is the part of the hospital which offers procedures including surgical, medical investigations, x-rays and endoscopy. As the name suggests it is for short stay patients who are normally discharged within a few hours. Occasionally patients do need to stay overnight.

In light of the variety of procedures and patient care needs experienced within the DPU the decisions as taken to close it, so it could be used as the 'hot ICU' in March.

Additional ventilators were brought in and staff training was given so medical professionals who usually work in other departments would be able to run the temporary facility.

It has not been needed, so Medical Director of the Hospital, Dr Peter Rabey, said work had already started to reinstate the DPU last week. But he added it can and will be put back into use as an ICU if needed.

"It's almost anticlimactic," he said on Friday. "but we've been making it back into a day patient unit and moving all the intensive care stuff out. We're doing that in a way that we can reinstall it as an intense care within two days should we need to. So we know exactly what goes where, which piece of equipment's being stored where, and we can do that in a very controlled way. So we'll be putting people into the day patient unit, I think on Monday."