SUNNY ISLE — “Violence in our community” forced St. Croix’s only hospital to temporarily end visitation rights at the Diamond Ruby medical facility this morning.
The Juan F. Luis Hospital & Medical Center published a statement on social media this afternoon that all visitation rights ended at the facility starting at 9:00 a.m. today.
“Due to the recent increase in violence in our community and out of an abundance of caution for our patients and staff, all visitation to Juan F. Luis and the V.I. Cardiac Center will be suspended for 72 hours,” hospital administrators said anonymously on Facebook.
The terse-worded message was published on Facebook about 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
“No visitors to any unit will be permitted during this time,” the hospital said. “We appreciate your understanding in this matter. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, but the safety of patients and staff remain our top priority.”
Meanwhile, a hospital patient who visited Juan F. Luis Hospital early Thursday morning told the Virgin Islands Free Press that they were hard-pressed to get medical services that day.
“We have people here since 10 a.m. in the hospital foot all with blood kids with headache and still no services,” the person, who spoke to the V.I. Free Press on condition of anonymity, said at 7:50 p.m. Thursday.
