“A critical situation is indicated if the ejection fraction rate of a patient decreases to about 10 percent. The patient would then clearly be in a critical state and in need of acute care, hospitalization and possibly open heart surgery,” Medical Chief of Staff of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Dr. Joanne Paul has said.
Heart patient Neeranjan Singh is not in a critical state.
Addressing the contents of an article carried in the Trinidad Guardian on December 21st, 2020,” Dr. Paul said 35 per cent, as it relates to the functioning of Neeranjan Singh’s heart, speaks to the ejection fraction of the heart, i.e. how much blood the left ventricle pumps out with.
In Mr. Singh’s case, there is an approximate 15 percent drop from the normal. Neeranjan Singh is not in a critical situation.”
Chief Executive Officer of the North Central Regional Health Authority, Mr. Davlin Thomas, said Neeranjan Singh is, in fact, a beneficiary of the telemedicine programme, the newest technology to be implemented by the NCRHA.
Over 14,000 telemedicine calls have been made by the NCRHA during COVID-19 with improved patient outcomes.
Mr. Neeranjan Singh was called by a senior physician from the Cardiology Department and was prescribed medicine which he agreed to pick up at the EWMSC, Mt. Hope on Monday. THE NCRHA is very surprised at the content of Mr. Neeranjan Singh’s newspaper article.
“We shall remind Mr. Neeranjan Singh to pick up his medication on Monday.”
“Covid 19 forced us into gap in patient care, which we have filled with a number of innovations like the telemedicine and telepharmacy programme. We are now at a stage where our telemedicine services provides us with the opportunity to improve our compliance with pharmaceuticals in the future, and as a net effect, the outcomes for our patients will be improved significantly and exponentially.” Says NCRHA CEO, Mr. Davlin Thomas.
“We can predict the positive future outcomes to the well-being of a significant portion of our cardiac patients, and for this we are extremely excited.”
The NCRHA’s telemedicine programme, which was initially adopted during the first wave of COVID-19 infections, was put to in place to ensure that critical care was delivered to our chronic disease patients, particularly those with comorbidities that put them at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, through the use of telecommunication technology.
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