Mark Wignall | Not good enough, Dr Tufton

Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton has always been accepted by significant numbers of Jamaicans as a nice-guy politician who hardly offends and is willing to face up the tough questions as a 'servant of the people'.

In addition to that, he is a highly educated and intelligent man. Those qualities adequately equip him to know that when problems crop up, as they must, it is not behind-the-scenes meetings and public answers that constitute what concerns our people most. Dr Tufton must know that it is how successful he has been in solving the problems.

For over a year now, the 10-floor, 400-bed Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) has had a ventilation/mould problem. Because of that, and failure to adequately deal with the problem, the institution has become potentially a place where patients go to get sick instead of being brought back to health by skilled medical personnel.

Even though the logistics would create a bit of a nightmare scenario for the authorities, any hint of patients being exposed to pathogens created by the very air the ventilation system provides would, to me, require a mass evacuation. Right at the outset.

In a properly run country with socially responsible legal statutes established, any proof that a patient became worse because of the contaminated ventilation system would result in remedy through the courts, and the awards would be humongous. Not in Jamaica though.

No high marks

With some junior doctors calling in sick this week and people in the western end of the island being advised not to use CRH, Dr Tufton, amiable though he may be, cannot merit high marks for effort. As the old saying goes, a minister of government is not paid nor expected to, to do his best. He is appointed to do his job.

If doctors are calling in sick, the obvious conclusion that must be drawn is that they, being fit, healthy and mobile have decided to use that mobility and walk off the job. The sick who are weak and definitely not privy to the details of what the doctors know have no choice except to remain there and breathe in more of the bad air.

I can well appreciate some of the concerns which must have occupied the thoughts of the health minister. Temporarily shuttering CRH or severely reducing the services it offered would add to the overall pressures on a national public health system, which has for many years creaked under the pressure and regularly causes nine and 10 hours wait even in A&E at many hospitals throughout the island.

Minister Tufton is said to be skilled in marketing himself and some people believe that what he has to market does not quite match up with his performance. It is not that he has been lazy like a handful of his Cabinet colleagues, but on this important issue which was his first real test under pressure, he has not come out looking as smart and capable as he is made out to be.

I used the public health system (UHWI) in the year 2000 and I was in excruciating pain from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. in A&E until I was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. I know what the pressures are - too many people overwhelming the system and not enough resources and high-tech equipment to make it efficient.

More than enough time has elapsed for Tufton to have determined exactly what the problems are and the steps needed to solve them. Even sadder is the reality of the poor patients who are forced to lie there and breathe in more contaminated air.

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