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Stabroek News

Baby mothers' dilemma
published: Friday | September 29, 2006

Dennie Quill, Contributor

While scores of delegates of the ruling People's National Party and their representatives were celebrating the 'mother of all conferences' at the National Arena last weekend, couch potatoes like myself were squirming in our chairs to see distressed pregnant mothers at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital baring their souls on television.

Why? Those who required surgical interventions, including life-saving procedures like Caesarean sections, were being put off repeatedly because the hospital did not have a working steriliser.

Equipment was being taxied to other area hospitals to be sterlised, and from all indications this was not a workable solution. I asked myself: How much could this cost?

Regrettably, none of the news reports gave that information. With tears streaming down her face one expectant mother described her frustration with her surgery being postponed from one day to the next and the uncertainty that she faced - she pleaded for action to save her baby. Aren't citizens of this country entitled to proper health care without unreasonable delay?

We later learnt that it was not the Ministry of Health that filled the breach, it was a non-profit organisation, Food For the Poor, that provided the device needed to get the steriliser working. In effect, the Government abandoned its role to protect and enhance the lives of Jamaicans to a charity. This leads one to ask: What are the priorities of the Ministry of Health? What role is the ministry playing in our quest to become healthier people?

The government-run Victoria Jubilee Hospital is more than 250 years old, it is the major maternal hospital in the country and it does not have a functioning autoclave.

Administrative snafu

This institution is expected to deliver quality health care. The health care choice for the majority of poor pregnant women in the Corporate Area is the Victoria Jubilee Hospital. I believe the Ministry of health owes an apology to these patients, and someone should be held accountable for this piece of administrative snafu.

The announcement that the ministry has ordered five autoclaves is cold comfort to those who have had to suffer in that hospital. We live in a culture in which persons who complain are bullied and fired.

Despite this, however, we have seen in recent times a number of medics complaining about the buckling public health system as they point to a staggering array of problems facing them. Poor working conditions and lack of equipment are two of the shortcomings cited.

The Association of Government Medical Consultants in a recent statement has urged the ministry to take steps to ensure that patients receive quality care at health facilities. We must also praise Dr. Lloyd Goldson for going public with this latest problem at the Victoria Jubilee. He seemed like a very frustrated man who had come to the end of his tether.

Public health concern

This incident at the Victoria Jubilee points to a broader public health concern. There is ample evidence that the nation's public health system has fallen into disarray. Many look on with disdain and a growing number of people have concluded that the worst place to go if you are sick is to a public hospital.

Unfortunately, this assessment is not fair to the thousands of health care workers who continue to strive for excellence in very difficult circumstances. And we also know that our public hospitals are revered for their trauma care.

Prime Minister Simpson Miller has announced a massive $635 million temporary work programme to help the poor. Perhaps she could shave off a sliver from that amount and dedicate it to the cause of the urban sick whose quality of care is being eroded. We need to deal with the aesthetics, but the country faces a massive public health problem and pretty flowers and sidewalk shrubbery will not change any of this.

Dennie Quill is a veteran journalist who may be reached at denniequill@hotmail.com.

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