Board praises the way staff coped

THE Board of Health has thanked its staff for the way they dealt with casualties of the weekend's fatal accident. It praised their 'magnificent effort last week in response to the exceptional pressures on the accident and emergency, surgical and critical care facilities at the PEH. 'Intensive care was having to cope with three patients requiring ventilation and there was a real prospect of serious operations having to be postponed - some for the second time,' said board president Peter Roffey. 'Our staff worked overtime and managed to create a high- dependency environment on the surgical wards, which allowed the urgent operations to proceed.' Deputy Hunter Adam, a former surgeon at the Medical Specialist Group, placed an unsuccessful sursis before the States last month asking members not to approve the building of a fourth operating theatre at the PEH. He said it was unnecessary. Deputy Roffey said yesterday: 'The board would point out that the pressures on facilities over the last week have shown that the suggestion put forward in some quarters that the PEH does not need extra theatre and critical care resources is absolute nonsense.' He said the island should be proud of the board's staff. n The three people, aged between 18 and 22, still in hospital after the crash remain in a stable condition. The other injured man has been discharged. Police investigations are continuing.