You are hereAnand's Collection / Cause for concern
Cause for concern
The Guardian editorial on Friday made an important point regarding the need for accountability in the next budget. Surely, ministers must explain how monies voted in the previous budget were spent in a way that enables us to determine whether we got value for our tax dollars!
Year after year, more money is voted without any serious critique on the previous year’s expenditure. A cost-benefit analysis is surely needed. The editorial hit the nail on the head when it said: "The Ministers of Health, National Security and Education, for a start, have to account for no fewer than $20 billion spent on these portfolios in the current fiscal year. Have there been real and tangible benefits?"
A cursory glance at the newspapers in the last few weeks shows that San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) is either mismanaged or terribly underfunded. Here are some of the stories:
Air-condition malfunction derails Sando surgeries
( Thursday, July 24, 2008)
"The two central air-conditioning systems at the SFGH collapsed yesterday evening, causing the cancellation of operations at the Radiology and Urology departments as well as the Blood Bank."
Hospital chaos, 17 patients in one room, await beds for over 8 hours (Thursday, July 10, 2008)
“One female patient, who had been waiting for a bed since Tuesday night, said: ‘This is real hell in a country with so much money. We cannot even get a place to rest we head’
The patients were willing to speak about their plight, but did not want to be identified, for fear of victimisation.
Imtiaz Ahamad, chairman of South-West Regional Health Authority, told the Express that ‘the only way to ease the overcrowding is to have another facility.’
He said the board had done all it could to ease the overcrowding, adding that the old ICU unit had been refurbished to accommodate 11 patients.
The bed management system is working and we are thinking about a new initiative which we cannot disclose at this point,” Ahamad said.”
Bed shortage forces patients to leave (Friday, July 4, 2008)
“Several patients left the SFGH disgusted yesterday, while others remained lying on stretchers for several hours inside the Accident and Emergency Department.
And nurses complained that they were unable to admit them to the wards because there were no beds available.”
Surgeries off again at Sando hospital (Saturday, June 28, 2008)
“Neurosurgery and plastic surgery services are once more not available at the SFGH, and all patients requiring such operations are being referred to other institutions.”
Health and postal strikes in Trinidad (April 22, 2008)
“Overcrowding has gotten so bad at the hospital, that the asthma room, a room supposed to be dedicated for those awaiting emergency asthma treatment, is being used as a holding bay for those awaiting hospital beds. Patients admitted for emergency asthma treatment also complained of overcrowding in the asthma room.
There has been a perennial shortage of beds in the medical wards, and patients are even kept overnight in the asthma room, with no facilities for showering.
The nurses have raised the problems with the authority, ‘but no one listens to what we have to say.’”
No running water at San Fernando General (Saturday, July 26, 2008)
“‘Almost the whole hospital was shut down, Wards 3, 6, 8, Urology, Burns and the medical wards could not function,’ the hospital source said, adding that kidney and diabetic patients were also affected.
Patients were unable to take baths, and nurses were also concerned about their hygiene, since they are required to wash their hands after dealing with each patient.
Throughout the wards, a stench emanated from the washroom as patients were unable to flush toilets.
One patient said the washroom was filthy...
A hospital official said: ‘There is no cause for concern.’”
Bathing with bottled water at Sando hospital
"The SFGH has been without water since Friday, which has resulted in patients having to clean themselves with bottled water supplied by relatives.
A pregnant woman from Ste Madeleine, who asked that her name be withheld, said she did not have a shower in 36 hours, because ‘It have no water and if it continues I would have to leave the hospital until water come.’
She said there were scores of patients on the labour wad who had not had a shower for two days.
The woman said: ‘Some of the toilets have not been flushed for the whole day, and the smell in those areas is disgusting.'"
Before we blindly vote more money for the health ministry, shouldn’t we first inquire why the substantial monies voted last year did not improve the service the SFGH provides to citizens?
If by now we can’t solve the problem of bed shortages, it’s time to ask “Mr Minister, whey de money gone?”
- Printer-friendly version
- Login or register to post comments
- 439 reads
Anand is beating a dead horse. As Robin Montano said in the Guardian some time ago, the government has certain specific tactics concerning dead horses.
"Riding a dead horse, T&T style
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount and get a different horse."
However, in government, education and corporate Trinidad, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:
Buying a stronger whip; changing riders; appointing a committee to study the horse; arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses; lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included; reclassifying the dead horse as living impaired; hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horses; harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed; providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse's performance; doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance; declaring that as the dead horse does not have to bed; it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses; rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And, of course, promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
Robin Montano
.....Jumbie, your analogy is so accurate and appropriate for the "current regime" who are totally useless and clueless as to what to do or what they are doing, except to make their "Tribal Leader" look good to the people and the world at large, all the while the people suffering like hell, like the good old lady said recently at the SFGH, this is a "real hell hole".
...but then who's listening anyway, its the "blind leading the blind" in this country now, "dog eat dog" but don't get sick...you're healthier at home than at the hospitals, with a better chance of survival at home than our healthcare institutions...!
...Manning and his cronies are all inept and interested in spending the people's monies in "having one grand party after the other", inviting every guest he can find who loves a "good fete but don't care for the calibre of the company they're in", so they can all prop up the huge ego trip of their master, and to hell with the people and their well being...they never had it so good...!
...so back to your "dead horse" story, how long are they goind to ride it before they realize "the damn thing stinking all the way to high heaven..."?
...funny thing, the time to get off and change horses long gone, and so they now stuck with "the rotting smell of a dead horse" for a government and all the flies it attracts and can't do a thing about it for the next five years...!
...but then again too, this is not anything new or novel, and history will repeat itself, over and over again...as has always been the case, as they too, the people I mean, just love being "ridden" like a dead horse also, and after a while they all get used to it, smell included, until the next whiff of something else comes up for them to realize how much suffering they are being made to withstand, all for the sake of the "ego" of one man...Patrick...is he worth that much...?
...they can hold their breath if the stench becomes overbearing, but for how long, they'll all die first, before change will ever come, or a breath of fresh air, as the stink of the dead horse is there for quite a long long time to come yet...as they have got so used to flogging the dead horse...its a way of life for them, a mindset, anything different will now make them uncomfortable and awkward...because they going nowhere fast and in a hurry, ...you see the dead horse moving at their kind of speed.. but they like it so...and they have even got used to the smell along with it now...!..
what stench...?..what hell hole..?.what dead horse..?.we like it so...!
...good luck...Trini.t.o.o
See Some things don't change - Part 1. Dr Petronella Manning was right when she said it was "Ketch ass" medicine going orn dong dey.
BTW anybody remember dee Gafoor Inquiry? How come post Gafoor there are so many failures in the health service. Okay doh tell me - it hard to stop a bus dat outta control - right. Dee bus ha tuh crash den? The Gafoor Inquiry is probably one of the biggest wastes of paper ever in the history of T&T. See bungling government here: Health Probe Sickens UNC-A.
The Gafoor Inquiry was simply an emollient to give people hope that change was about to begin. That was April 2007. So what's the tangible changes post Gafoor? You tell me - because it jes looking like more of the same really. And t'ings looking worse - ah mean tuh say yuh jes have to take in Anand's commentary.
But yuh see me, I eh blaming dee goverment no more. I piling blame on the people - the electorate. The government is being allowed to get away with 'murder'! An electorate that chooses to remain divided or posture itself for division, deserves all that it gets.
Take dis site for example. It's fight is for 'Freedom'. How much freedom fighters allyuh see out here makin' any noise? I's dee same three people all the time in the last year or so - me, Jumbie and Trini.t.o.o. - and guess what? Ah t'ink all ah we noise makers from outside of T&T! Correct meh eef a 'rong. What happen - dee people in T&T; dey cyah use dee written word - all dey could do is jump arong and march rong Red House an ting.
And what happen to YouTube - how come we doh see no video clips of the horror in T&T hospitals out dey? Oh doh tell meh Trickidadian only good at taking porn video on dey cellphones, not stinking hospital conditions.
Well pardners as ah say - no mercy from me - dem people reaping all dat dey plant.