Sick and tired of inefficient health sector
Published:Saturday | March 1, 2014 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
My mother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and the physicians said she is just too weak to go through chemotherapy and radiation, which is understandable. They told my sister to make her comfortable, but this illness comes with intense pain.
My mother has a hard time swallowing, so her best option is liquid morphine. The first physician did not even know that liquid morphine exists and had to call her supervisor and use Google to get more information. After finding what she was looking for, she wrote the prescription. This is actually where the trouble began, because no pharmacy in Clarendon or any other parish stocks the liquid.
The only place that we got it from twice was at National Chest Hospital, until we found that Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) also stocks it.
The first visit to National Chest was a nightmare, because the physician forgot to write the docket number on the prescription. My niece had to go back to the hospital in Clarendon to meet with the physician, then go back to Kingston. The second time was the same, because the physician forgot to write some other information on the prescription.
What is surprising to me again is that my mother was a patient at National Chest, and that is where she was first diagnosed. The telephone was invented for better communication, yet professionals in Jamaica do not seem to understand what it is for.
My sister started the journey to KPH again thinking it would have been better. The crowd at KPH is a reminder of a concentration camp. There were people from every parish trying to get medication as well. She got there about 6 a.m. and, by 12 p.m., the system was down.
She went back the next day and people started fighting and the doors were closed. When things calmed down, they started accepting more prescriptions, but after an hour, the system when down again. She came back home without anything to give my mom.
I understand that morphine is on the list of controlled drugs that must be dispensed carefully, but why not have it available in every parish for patients such as my mom? No one wants to see their loved one spend their final days in such pain. Each parish and community has elderly patients, and it is a shame that no one is speaking on their behalf.
I see the mission and vision on the Ministry of Health website, and they all sound good, but there is nothing behind those words, because no one is protecting the most vulnerable.
If Jamaica goes back to charging a reasonable cost for health care, it will help them to have at least the most basic equipment and improve certain technology instead of having these big empty buildings with absolutely nothing to treat the sick. I can now understand why some of the returning residents have packed up their belongs that they can travel with and returned to where they came from.
By the way, my mother has still not got her medication. My brother will make the next trip to KPH to see if he will have better luck this time.
If this is not a shame what is? If I was in charge of the health-care system in Jamaica, I would resign. All of this is just poor planning.
MERLINE MINOTT
Georgia, USA