Grenada audit tells hospital to replace paid volunteers with experienced staff

Paid volunteers should be removed from operating rooms at Grenada's largest hospital, where their lack of experience could put patients at risk, a government report recommended.

St. George's General Hospital should replace paid volunteers with experienced nurses, said the report, released Friday. It did not note whether volunteers have caused any injuries or deaths, but three court complaints have been filed against the hospital to date, blaming it for at least one death and several botched surgeries.

Legislators, by law, must follow recommendations laid out in the government-funded report, which analyzed patient care data collected in 2006.

Young volunteers wheel patients into operating rooms, hand instruments to doctors and operate machines at the General Hospital as part of a government-funded program for unemployed youth and high school dropouts.