Accountability for institutional dysfunctions
Published:Tuesday | July 22, 2025 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Three weeks after my mother left The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), we received a call – not to check on her health or follow-up care – but to give vague billing details. We were told that the final bill would be available after settling with the insurance, and if we wanted to know the final amount, we should call back. Is this typical hospital communication, or does it reveal a broader culture of poor management, customer service, and business acumen?
The experience worsened during the clinic visit. My mother, a senior citizen, waited three agonising hours to see a doctor, watching younger, later-arriving patients go ahead of her. The excuse offered was a supposed policy prioritising repeat patients over first-timers. However, when we finally saw the doctor, we were told the opposite – that her age should have placed her at the front. By then, her blood pressure had dangerously spiked, and we were advised to take her to her GP immediately. This is not healthcare; this is mis-care.
Even the physical infrastructure screamed neglect. In a major clinic area, only one bathroom was functional – with a single broken toilet and buckets for flushing. No cleaning staff, no sanitation oversight.
There were no signs, no instructions, no customer service agents to guide anxious families. The issue isn’t lack of money – it’s lack of management, leadership, and vision. The UHWI’s dysfunction is a microcosm of our national reality: disorganised systems that wear a public mask of order, but behind the scenes are crumbling.
We are into another election season, yet few candidates are talking about systemic reform or people-centred development. The focus remains on promises and giveaways, not transformation. Jamaica’s roads, for example, remain a national crisis. The National Works Agency, central to the problem, was exposed in a recent TVJ investigative report as lacking robust quality control and insufficient oversight. Still, neither of the two major political parties has proposed a credible reform plan. Why?
This is the heart of Jamaica’s disease: the pursuit of power, not people. Until we demand systems that work for the citizen – not the politician – we will continue to cycle through this chronic dysfunction. The real race should be for people’s development, not personal power.
REV DONALD CHAMBERS