Early last year, a scathing report about the sister islands’ emergency medical services urged the government to staff both clinics on Virgin Gorda with a doctor 24 hours a day.
That recommendation didn’t help Revovion “Bucky” Sprauve.
Mr. Sprauve, 61, died on Friday evening shortly after arriving at the Nurse Iris O’Neal Medical Centre in Spanish Town only to find the building closed, according to his family members.
“I am very hurt, angry, frustrated, outraged that the BVI is like a third world country; no one in authority care [for] lives of the people,” his sister Ingrid Sprauve wrote Saturday on Facebook. “My brother died last night because the Nurse Iris O’Neal Clinic door was closed: No sign on the [expletive] door with emergency numbers of which doctor or nurse to call for emergency.”
The clinic, which previously operated 24 hours a day, had reopened two days earlier following a 12-day closure due to issues caused by Tropical Storm Ernesto.
But it was still on a 7 a.m.-7 p.m. schedule, and Mr. Sprauve arrived too late, according to the BVI Health Services Authority.
“Mr. Sprauve arrived at the clinic outside of the adjusted hours, and tragically passed away before medical care could be provided,” the BVIHSA explained in a Monday statement.
The agency added that it has launched an investigation into the incident, and the VG clinic is now back open 24 hours a day.
‘Russian roulette’
Mr. Sprauve’s niece also posted to Facebook on Saturday.
“At a time when demand for proper healthcare in the Virgin Islands, especially Virgin Gorda, has never been higher, the BVI Health Services Authority and so-called elected officials continue to play Russian roulette with the lives of our people,” Maricia Sprauve wrote. “My uncle rushed to the new, fancy, most-bragged-about public clinic/mini hospital in Virgin Gorda to have to meet an empty facility and to have to wait more than an hour. No doctor, no nurse. Just the gentle breeze and mosquitoes!”
Mr. Sprauve’s sister ended her post with a plea for more accessible and consistent healthcare on sister islands.
“Fix the healthcare and make it accessible 24/7,” she wrote in all caps. “There is no specific time when someone becomes ill.”
The new Nurse Iris O’Neal Medical Centre on Virgin Gorda partially opened with much fanfare in 2020 (above). Late last week, it was operating only from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. following damage sustained in Tropical Storm Ernesto, and it was closed when Revovion “Bucky” Hodge arrived there on Friday evening. He died shortly thereafter. The clinic is now operating 24 hours a day. (File Photo: ZARRIN TASIM AHMED)
Clinic closure
The most recent problems at the clinic started after Tropical Storm Ernesto passed over the territory on Aug. 14.
Two days later, the BVIHSA announced that the facility had closed because of a “low voltage situation.”
A week later, another bulletin notified VG residents that the clinic’s doors would remain shut until further notice.
“The clinic has already undergone a deep cleaning, and mould-related concerns have been addressed,” an Aug. 23 bulletin stated. “The reopening is further delayed because the AC system requires new parts that are not available locally.”
Some air-conditioner parts were on hand already, though, and BVIHSA technicians were working “diligently to resolve the remaining issues and return services to the clinic,” according to the bulletin.
Five days later, another bulletin announced that the clinic was back open after mobile AC units had been installed.
Despite its reopening, however, 24-hour services had yet to resume: The Aug. 28 bulletin stated that the clinic would be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and that residents in need of medical assistance should contact the emergency number 340-2045.
‘Deep sorrow’
On Monday of this week, the BVIHSA expressed “deep sorrow” for Mr. Sprauve’s death and added that it is working to address residents’ concerns in the Ninth District and gather “all available information” regarding the incident. The statement also included a reminder that the BVIHSA had attempted to notify the public of the adjusted clinic hours.
“We recognise the importance of accessibility to care and made efforts in a previous bulletin to publicise the [clinic’s] reduced hours, as well as contact numbers in case of emergencies,” the statement noted.
In response to the incident, the authority added, it will also review its protocols and procedures.
BVIHSA CEO Dr. June Samuel declined to give an interview on the matter.
Minister’s response
Health and Social Development Minister Vincent Wheatley, who represents Virgin Gorda in the House of Assembly, appeared on Tola Radio on Monday to answer questions about the incident.
“The issue of access to health care in Virgin Gorda is as old as the district itself,” he said. “I’ve inherited a problem, but I don’t intend to kick this can down the road any further. We have a right to healthcare 24/7.”
Making that right available to all, however, is a “complex problem,” Mr. Wheatley added.
“We just need to make [24/7 healthcare] happen,” he said, adding, “I imagine there’s no simple solution to this problem.”
Later, a caller asked him to explain why the problem is so complex.
Mr. Wheatley replied, “What I was saying in the beginning was that access to healthcare 24/7 has been a challenge for a long time. I didn’t say it was necessarily hard. It’s just there has been a challenge. And my job is to fix it. That’s what I said.”
The minister added that he grew up in a time when there was only one doctor on VG.
“We have about five or six now,” Mr. Wheatley said. “Why is this problem still around if we have so many doctors? What is the challenge?”
The caller asked the minister if he were asking a rhetorical question.
Mr. Wheatley replied, “I was asking the gentleman: I was asking what he thinks is the challenge.”
Before the caller could respond, however, Mr. Wheatley said the call “dropped out.”
‘March against who?’
Also during the radio programme, the minister suggested that he would be willing to “march” alongside the people of the Ninth District and “do whatever we have to do” to improve healthcare on the sister islands.
In response, another listener posted a comment in the live Facebook chat beside the Tola Radio broadcast.
“Vincent said he will help march if he has to. March against who?” Claudius Rymer asked. “That’s my question. I thought he was the minister of health.”
Maricia Sprauve, Mr. Sprauve’s niece, also commented in the chat.
“Why haven’t you reached out to our family?” she asked. “Why don’t you answer your phone?”
The minister, however, said he had reached out to the family.
“I personally visited the family. I met his sister who was there. I spoke with the other one who was away, offered my condolences,” Mr. Wheatley said.
“Like I said, Bucky was a personal friend of mine.”
He added that the stories he had heard about Mr. Sprauve’s death on Friday were “very, very painful and hurtful.”
“He was at the basketball court, and he wasn’t feeling well,” Mr. Wheatley explained. “They took him to the clinic, and there was no sign on the door. So that’s what I’m hearing.”
Mr. Wheatley said he understood that Mr. Sprauve’s family then took him to the police station and called a doctor.
“I’m not sure how long he waited between, you know, the basketball court, going to the clinic, going to the police station, and the doctor arriving,” the minister said. “But I was told that when the doctor arrived, he was already — he had already passed.”
The minister added, “It could’ve been myself.”
Previous at-large rep
The next guest on the radio programme was Shereen Flax-Charles, a Virgin Gordan who served as an at-large representative from 2019 to 2023 before losing the Ninth District contest to Mr. Wheatley in last year’s general election. Ms. Flax-Charles said the initial delay in reopening the clinic was caused by a non-functional generator that was unable to turn on when the power went off.
“All of the situations that have happened up to Mr. Sprauve’s death, in my opinion, could have been avoided,” Ms. Flax-Charles said. “The generator became inoperable on Aug. 24, 2023. From that time, members of the Virgin Gorda community begged and pleaded for the spec of the generator and the particular part so that we could try to get that part. Many of us tried. So when the storm came and the power went out, obviously the generator did not kick in, because it wasn’t working.”
She also said she drove by the clinic after the BVIHSA announced its reopening, but it did not appear to be open even then.
“The two portable ACs were not hooked up,” she said. “I called Health Services to inform them that, ‘How are you opening the clinic and those two backup ACs are not operating?’ They said that they would be up and running by the end of the day.”
Scathing 2023 report
According to Ms. Flax-Charles, however, issues at the clinic started much earlier.
This narrative is supported by a January 2023 report by Sister Islands Programme Coordinator Sasha Flax, which stated that the sister islands had been plagued by inadequate emergency medical services for years.
The report — which was leaked to the Beacon last year but still has not been made public through official channels — includes analysis of information collected in 2022 based on interviews with numerous residents, department heads and district officers, who complained of several issues across their organisations and departments.
According to the report, all the government entities that the Sister Islands Unit interviewed identified a lack of adequate staffing.
“Some departments are working with less than a skeleton staff and are not being given the support they need to carry out their duties,” the report stated.
Mr. Sprauve’s niece ended her Facebook post with a call to action.
“Providing high quality, safe and compassionate care should be our absolute priority, and we hope our government gets focused on making sure they learn a valuable lesson from this unfortunate, careless incident,” she wrote on Saturday.
