The Ministry of Health and Wellness is cautioning Jamaicans with only mild symptoms of dengue against rushing to the emergency department of hospitals at the first instance of seeking treatment.

This is to prevent overcrowding in hospitals, says the chief medical officer (CMO) in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie.

“We really do want to caution people though about everybody rushing to the emergency department when they only have mild symptoms. At this time, we are not only seeing an overload from persons with viral illnesses but this time of the year we tend to have more persons coming in with uncontrolled non-communicable diseases and the complications thereof,” the CMO said at a post-Cabinet press briefing today, October 4.

The medical chief urged people to visit their primary healthcare centres to help lessen overcrowding at emergency departments.

She also appealed to persons who may have relatives in hospitals and who have been discharged to take them home as they are adding to the burden on hospitals by occupying the limited beds available to patients.

“We are pleading with persons who have relatives in the hospital who are what we call social cases meaning that they have been discharged from the hospital but they still remain in the hospital bed preventing other persons from getting a bed. We are appealing to persons to go and take their relatives so that we can deal with some of the crowding issues that we have in hospitals,” she added.