Mark Wignall | When the healthcare system creaks

Andrew Clunis, of the Jamaica Times publication, featured a piece that was somewhat neutral on the state of Jamaica’s healthcare system. ‘It isn’t all that bad! concluded the column.

Having had reasons to spend some time there on Father’s Day, I beg to differ with the naysayers because my experience there was most pleasant. Mr Clunis’ ‘most pleasant.’ draws me into a Negril sunset. In addition, he had the pleasure of interacting with first-class health professionals.

The wait wasn’t bad. From the same stance as Mr.Clunis I have no problems with the quality of the professional staff. Mr Clunis has not quite figured out that the best part of his and most folks’ entire experience at KPH is the post A&E period, admission and seemingly personal attention by staff.

Another reality is the one which speaks to the fact that most hospital patients are not necessarily those who end up in a bed in a ward. Old age pushes those with optical issues, ENT matters and a whole compendium of regular blood pressure/diabetes visits to the respective departments at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH). Unfortunately, much of the basic holding areas of these places are ill-prepared for the very senior citizens which use them. Broken up bits of wood which are supposedly shaped into benches. Seated there for hours.

I agree with Mr Clunis that offering healthcare in that situation will be far from ideal. But, where it exposes the poverty of the people, hauls it back in their faces and forces them to hours on a tough bench in torture, nothing about that is okay. In fact, it is nothing more than a constant reminder that much of the system is set up to extract pain from you.

I am certain that Mr Clunis would bawl out physically and mentally when he makes a basic head count of those ahead of him (250) in a slow line.

DREADED PLACE

In his column, Mr Clunis stated that it is a most dreaded place, based on rough public appraisal. It is quite understood that, if free healthcare is to be pretended, it has to give the best of the pretence picture. Younger folk in A&E can afford the wait, if not the pain. Senior citizens are at the perfect place to suffer. Four hours’ wait, either standing in a long, narrow hall or ‘kotching’ on a series of wooden benches.

Yes, I know, the best industrial management skills brought to delivering healthcare can hardly do any better. It is just a fact that some may believe the system hurts more than it heals. Mr Clunis supports the grand plan by the health ministry to expand the KPH.

In the interim, as much as the professional staff at KPH can expend deep and personal empathy, the thoughts and prayers can only go so far. A nurse can only work with the names and numbers making up the various dockets.

A few weeks ago, a section of the hospital building held those with a specific ailment. A nurse beckoned to them in signal of a move to another section. They dutifully marched off, down an incline of steps, across the road, pu a flight of steps, and on towards a narrow hall. Along one section of the hall were tough wooden benches. It was nothing faster.

Torture. Just more standing or ‘kotching’.

WHEN THEY CARE

He is Jamaican Chinese The other doctor is, just, well, Jamaican. One senses that they are among the best of their profession. “My God,” he remarked. “Look at the long line.” Not much he could do about it. A few days later, the other doctor was moved to issue the same remark. And yet, their open empathy and care cannot speed up the process.

Mr Clunis must be aware that, in the best of the service delivery, at times it is considered normal for poor citizens to wait 7 hours to be attended to. One is expected to grin and bear it, clutch at the spot on your body that is your personal hell, and hope that the temporary painkiller can extend its life.

Some senior citizens grin and bear more as the six o clock bus delivers them close to home just as it is becoming dark. A simple fix in the system is better construction of the wooden benches in the waiting area. Surely, as much as the various windows and the seating arrangement must move together, the least that can be expected is fewer nails, fewer splinters on the benches.

Yes, the people are poor and, the rate of health delivery reminds them of that unpleasant fact, but the fixes are not expensive, that is, if care were of any importance. There is a lot that we agree on, me and Mr Clunis.

An investment in healthcare is money well spent, Mr Clunis reminds us. The problem is. if a few million more is to be spent, what paltry sum will be spent to make our poorer patients feel ‘as if dem is smaddy’? Or, the priorities lie somewhere else?

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.