I WANT to tie up some loose ends so I can start 2016 with a clean slate. I recently commented on the poor service which persists at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Accident & Emergency department despite the platitudes we keep hearing from the powers that be. My comments result from experience over the last 20 years, and in fact my column presented a rather euphemistic version of the true situation since details would’ve been too embarrassing to relate.
One reader subsequently put forward her recent positive experience with the department. Nothing wrong with that, but as they say “one swallow doth not a summer make”. The quality of service at the hospital, particularly in A&E, must be of a consistently high standard – a hit or miss situation won’t do. We may accept such inconsistency in other businesses, but not at a hospital dealing with life or death situations.
I must say that the email and other responses to my column confirm my contention that all is far from well. One response noted “your column about the QEH is right on target – I experienced it!” Another reader said she had visited the A&E a short while ago with her very elderly mother and her experience was almost identical to mine. She said the staff were “like schoolchildren” and very difficult to communicate with or extract any information from. The following are excerpts from some online comments:
(1) “Even when the QEH had its better days, the A&E always functioned in chaos with extremely long waits . . . . The behaviours of some of the doctors and nurses, obviously frustrated with the conditions under which they are asked to perform professional services, only add fuel to an already hot fire as some of them are as cold and callous as the ice that has engulfed the hardness of their hearts or any compassions they may have had that depicted the existence of a soul. The QEH is indeed a nightmare on Martindale’s Road.”
(2) “Healthcare for ordinary folk is risky . . . . Life is considered cheaper than in the higher socioeconomic groups. Whose responsibility is it to protect the least of these? The doctors’ unions? . . . the elected reps?”
(3) “A patent description of a ‘Third World’ destination. And yet we boast of pride and industry and are planning massive celebrations for next year, totally oblivious or uncaring of one of the fundamental pillars of a modern progressive society. Health care and sanitation. Both go hand in hand and Barbados would not even receive an F mark for both in my book.”
(4) “In 2010 I went to visit someone and almost cried. I couldn’t understand why a place where the sick come seeking medical attention could be in such a shabby state . . .”
(5) “. . . I had a similar experience due to my mother’s recent illness. She was seen after a 13-hour wait, despite my persistent queries to the doctors and nurses there. During my wait I saw so many persons arguing with the nurses while requesting to be discharged without being seen, because they were simply too tired, exhausted and frustrated having to wait for an extended period while their relatives moaned in pain . . . . I echo your concern that something must be done in providing reliable medical care for hard-working tax-paying Barbadians.”
As we all know, this problem has persisted through both administrations. I certainly wrote to the then minister after one of my bad experiences in 2004, and throughout my stint in the Senate I raised the matter on numerous occasions, but to no avail. If there were an alternative for those who could afford it, perhaps the service to the majority who can’t might improve. But there’s no guarantee, since most public officers seem to believe that people accessing “free” services should be treated with disdain, not apparently realising that taxpayers are paying for it.
Let’s start 2016 with a determination to make ours a country of service excellence, both in the public and private sectors. But we have a long way to go, judging from the hour and a half I had to wait recently to pay Government $25 (there has to be a better system) and the inordinately long lines always present in commercial banks. Instead of having cheerful faces for Christmas, Bajan “steupses” filled the air at both places.
Dr Frances Chandler is a former Independent senator. Email: fchandler@caribsurf.com