Garth Rattray
When the death of a newborn prompted consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr. Lloyd Goldson, to make public the dangerous decrepitude that exists at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH), it was because he cares deeply for the well-being and lives of his patients. It was out of a grave concern for the institution that he loves so much and out of frustration brought on by years of pleading (by the medical staff) to a cold, unresponsive and apparently uncaring 'health-care' system.
The VJH problems are not new. Several letters written by worried staff doctors to the appropriate personnel and authorities have been ignored. Correspondences state that over the past five years operations were cancelled for several reasons: either, elevator not working or, no (operating) gowns, theatre instruments, nurses, anaesthetist, operating theatre light, monitoring equipment or sutures available. There was even a complaint of a dead pigeon in the ceiling, bird droppings, roaches and flies contaminating the theatre. Other problems were: malfunctioning suction machines, a shortage of linen and a lack of ventilators for critically ill patients.
Grim reports
The plaintive letters were replete with words like, "real and serious crisis", "pay dearly in litigation costs", "malfunctioning", "just the tip of the iceberg", "critical shortage", "impacted negatively on the quality of care that we give our patients" and "total disrepair". A few grim reports were so shocking and litigious that it would be imprudent to publicise them, but, perhaps the most damning of all was this statement, "the authorities have been kept abreast".
The Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ) held a press conference last Thursday, September 28.
In it, Dr. Alverston Bailey (MAJ president) reiterated the plea by
Dr. Goldson for the South Eastern Regional Health Authority (SERHA), to "implement urgent corrective measures to correct the problems". SERHA is a statutory body of the Ministry of Health responsible for the healthcare of the residents of Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Catherine and St. Thomas. It is one of four Regional Health Authorities formed as a part of the Health Sector reform when the National Health Services Act was passed in 1997 aimed at decentralising health care.
Like other Regional Health Authorities, SERHA is funded by the government and revenues collected for services. However, because VJH patients consist mainly of poor people, there is sub-optimal revenue. Of note is Health Minister Dalley's sombre proclamation during his Sectoral Debate speech (September 12, 2006), "The reduction in the Capital Budget has affected the ability of the sector to maintain, expand or improve plant and equipment".
This is tragic for the VJH, especially since it's the largest women's hospital in the Caribbean with a dedicated gynaecological theatre. It carried out approximately 9,500 operations last year, 15 per cent of which were caesarean sections.
Request for action
With this in mind, Dr. Bailey not only highlighted some of the existing intolerable problems but also made a strong request for urgent action from SERHA. He announced that the MAJ will launch a "VJH Assistance Fund", decried the "miserly 4.4 per cent of the budget" allocated for health and called on the government to "provide the Ministry of Health with proper budgetary support to enable the needs of the hospital and provide quality care to these poor and marginalised people".
It took the death of an infant and the public complaint of a frustrated senior doctor to get the attention of the relevant government authorities. I hope that this administration will demonstrate that their slogan "we put people first" is not just a bunch of empty words.
Dr. Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice.
