Trauma overload

WESTERN BUREAU:

Dr Delroy Fray, the clinical coordinator at the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), is raising concern about the alarming number of victims of motor vehicle accidents who were admitted to the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay, St James, between August and September this year, saying it has sparked a delay in scheduled elective surgeries.

Fray, who was addressing a press conference at the S Hotel, also in Montego Bay, last Thursday, said the CRH received 285 patients with injuries from motor vehicle accidents over the period, which was 72 more than the corresponding period in 2024.

“In that two-month period in 2024, there were 26 gunshot wound patients who came to the CRH and, at the same time, we had 213 motor vehicle accident cases present in our accident and emergency department,” said Fray. “Compare that to August and September 2025, where we had seven gunshot wound cases and, on the other side, we had 285 motor vehicle accident cases present there, and those are statistics that you cannot run from.”

To compound the situation at CRH, Fray said the hospital is seeing an increased number of cancer-related cases.

“We are getting a flood of breast and colon cancer cases, and we are seeing a rise in rectal and stomach cancer cases, and we have to give those patients priority,” noted Fray. “But when you have a motor vehicle accident patient who is admitted, you might have several long bone injuries, chest injuries, head injuries, or abdominal injuries that require surgery, sometimes more than one surgery, and it pushes back the elective surgery that was set for that week or that month.

“I feel bad for those patients who have to be put off, and I get calls every day; my phone is ringing off with calls saying, ‘Dr Fray, I was cancelled.’”

The issue of trauma cases sidelining elective surgeries also arose last year, when an article in The Sunday Gleaner of August 11, 2024 revealed that trauma patients, including those injured in motor vehicle crashes, were consuming 60 per cent of the health budget at the CRH.

While commending the St James police for their ongoing efforts to bring down crime in the parish, Fray suggested that they should put equal effort into reducing the number of motor vehicle offences, which lead to crashes, saying those injuries are clogging the hospital system.

“What I would say to the security forces is that, ‘You have done a great job in decreasing the number of gunshot wounds we get. Help me on the road situation, so that we can minimise the motor vehicle accident cases coming in the hospital and thereby free up operating time, so we can do our elective procedures’,” said Fray.

“That is what we have to work on now, very assiduously, and because it is now setting up for rain, just let rain fall and you drive down the road, you will have three lanes on the one-way; and they will even drive on the sidewalk,” he added, referencing the level of indiscipline seen on the roads, even during periods of bad weather.

Notably, between January 1 and July 23 this year, 219 people died in 190 fatal crashes across Jamaica. Speeding continues to be the primary cause of road traffic crashes, along with improper overtaking, failing to keep in the proper lane, and pedestrians walking or standing in the roadway.

In 2024, the Island Traffic Authority reported 365 road traffic deaths, compared to 425 the previous year.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com