Security at University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI)
published: Wednesday | December 7, 2005

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I READ with interest and some concern the article written by Dr. Garth Rattray about the difficulties he has encountered visiting his patients after 8:00 p.m. at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). At first, I thought maybe this was at Kingston Public Hospital where one might be able to understand extra security precautions, but in his article, he refers to the Tony Thwaites wing a few metres away. I can't begin to imagine what would drive a policy such as this and I don't want to wait until I am a patient at the hospital (public servants can't afford Tony Thwaites) to add support for his concern.

No doubt the old security fear will be trotted out as the reason why a "lock it down" policy has been adopted. Is this the best that management can come up with? I would expect that on the board of UHWI we should have some of our more creative and bright managerial talent, and this policy has survived only because until now they were not aware of the practice of preventing persons unlimited access to their personal doctors when they may be in their final moments.

Please publicly respond to Dr. Rattray and let the rest of us know whether this is indeed the policy, and not just frightened security guards, whether it will be reviewed, and also please give us a timetable (30 days maximum) when an improved approach will be implemented.

I am, etc.,

DANVILLE WALKER

Dawalk@cwjamaica.com

43 Duke Street

Kingston