Let me see here: Patients with serious injuries like a broken jaw waiting 14 hours in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital before being seen, others waiting over 24 hours. Deaths under circumstances where relatives are claiming negligence and unreasonable wait times as factors. Hospital Deputy Director saying widespread theft in the hospital is impacting care… and horror stories by the dozens told by families throughout Barbados…
And now Barbados Minister of Health Jerome Walcott says he is “disappointed” with the tone of recent media articles about the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
We Have News For The Minister Of Health: We’re “Disappointed” With People Suffering & Dying Needlessly
Mr. Walcott did make one true point though – he said that there will be no “quick fix” for the hospital woes.
I think that most of us already knew that. It has taken over a decade of criminal neglect and wrong spending priorities by government for the hospital to deteriorate to its current state.
Walcott’s New “Solution”?
A couple of clinics will stay open a few more hours here and there.
Read what Walcott has to say in The Nation News and pray that none of your family needs emergency care…
No A&E Quick Fix
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, says Minister of Health Jerome Walcott, for everyone who walks into the Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) to be treated immediately.
However, he said, to ease some of the pressure on the department which had about 42 000 to 45 000 passing through it last year, from April 1 two polyclinics – Maurice Byer in St Peter and Randal Phillips in Christ Church – would have extended opening hours.
Walcott made the disclosure ata Barbados Labour Party St Philip West branch meeting at St Patrick’s Primary School last Sunday.
He said that despite the fast track/walk-in clinic at the Sir Winston Scott Polyclinic which opens up to 10 p.m. on weekdaysand 6 p.m. on Saturdays, people with minor injuries/ailmentswere reluctant to go there.
There were plans for the “modernisation and expansion”of the A&E, the minister said, noting that a small unit, with a doctor and nurse, would be set up at the QEH to cater to those patients with minor ailments.
Commenting on stories on the A&E in the last SUNDAY SUN, Walcott said he was “disappointed” with the tone of the articles.
“No comment was made as to what [the nurses and doctors] were seeing, what sort of cases they were dealing with, what they were doing in the stat room at the same point in time when you were in the waiting room, what was actually happening in there, who was being resuscitated, which stab wound was being dealt with, which asthmatic . . . . No comment as to what was happening in the Accident & Emergency facility. They were just subjective comments.”
… original story link here
24 Comments
February 14, 2007 at 1:04 pm
The way this BLP administration is viewed by our young ones…….!!!
What is Politics ?
A little boy goes to Prime Minister Arthur and
asks, “What is Politics?” Arthur says, ” Well
son, let me try to explain it this way:
#1. I’m the head of the BLP, so call me The PRESIDENT.
#2 My Ministers are the administrators of the money, so call them the GOVERNMENT.
#3 We are here to take care of your needs, so we’ll call you the PEOPLE.
#4 The poor, we’ll consider as the WORKING CLASS..
#5 And the little children, we’ll call them the FUTURE.
Now think about that and see if it makes sense,
PM Arthur, said.
So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about
what PM Arthur has said.
Later that week, the little boy visited the A & E at
the QEH and hears little children crying, so he
goes and check on them. He finds that the
children have been waiting for hours. So the little
boy goes to the doctor’s room and finds most of
the doctors sound asleep.
Not wanting to wake them, he goes to the nurses’
quarters. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the
keyhole and sees the PM in there. He gives up and
goes back to the A & E waiting area.
The next morning, the little boy says to PM
Arthur, ” PM, I think I understand the concept of
politics now.” The PM says, “Good, son, tell me in
your own words what you think politics is all
about.”
The little boy replies, “The PRESIDENT is
screwing the WORKING CLASS, while the
GOVERNMENT is sound asleep. The PEOPLE are
being ignored and the FUTURE is in deep……
CRAP…..!!!
February 14, 2007 at 1:25 pm
When will they stop making excuses and putting on plasters and set about doing the peoples work and fixing the ills at the QEH and the health system in general.
When we can spend $ 180 Mill on Cricket world cup and cannot or just do not care to address the welfare of the nation we are in a sorry state.
I hope the new stadium can provide the facilities to heal the sick and provide facilities for carrying out surgeries and baby deliveries, see after the needs of asthma and heart attack victims.
To you Mr Walcott you are a disaster waiting to happen, never has someone promised so much and delivered so little, if running your mouth was getting the job done then you would have scored full marks but unfortunately the real test is actually WORKING and I am afraid to say in your case you have failed miserably, have you considered doing the nation a favour and throw in the towel and resigning give it to Mia as she has plenty time on her hands to get involved after all she must have an in depth and intimate knowledge of the workings of the hospital.
The only one close to you in this department must be our C J when he was in politics remember him promising to hang all of them on death row once he was elected and the people of St.Thomas foolishly elected him and to this date how many have actually been hung ZERO NOT A SINGLE ONE.
Politicians day talk and their night talk are never the same.
ps another amazing point on this CWC issue can you believe that in that figure of $ 180 Mill that as much as $ 50 mill has been spent on security wonder who is connected where and who is doing well out of this allocation
February 14, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I’m told that the trick to being seen and attended to PRONTO! at QEH,
is to go in there suffering from asthma.
The nebulizer is immediately available.
So for those of you with mere broken jaws, and bleeding wounds…heads UP!
you are NOT there with no broken jaw,
nor no bleeding wounds or fractured forearm.
you are there COZ YOU CAN’T BREATHE.
Understand?
Your other, minor, medical complaints (fractured skull and the like) may also be attended to AFTER they nebulize you,
but the trick is to get in thru that door while you’re still alive.
……………………….
After the death of someone’s cute lil 4-yr.old dau.(Happy Camper, huh?)
I’m beginning to equate QEH, with Scarborough General.
“Scarborough General” ??
On a trip to TOBAGO in 1992, we were warned to NEVER allow oneself to be admitted to Scarborough General Hospital,
for fear of DYING in that wretched Insitution, of afflictions none-too-severe!
This advice from a long-resident Tobagonian himself
who warned us that, if ever one fell ill while in Tobago, to instruct your family/friends/ppl to fly you out to Anywhere Else.
Seems ppl DIE at Scarborough General from simple things like common cold, etc.
- You’ve been warned.
QEH now approaches that sorta appalling level.
Try FMH instead, even if you pay them something: as in.. What’s YOUR life worth ???
February 14, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Hopefully, the private hospital in welches will get going soon. When it comes to their loved ones, people will find the money to get the best care.
February 14, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Wow.!
February 14, 2007 at 3:58 pm
The minister is side-stepping the issue of long waits by highlighting another real issue of frivolous use of the emergency department. The two are seperate, that is what any implimentation of triage seeks to do. For the life of me I do not understand why there isn’t some form of Triage at the A&E and if there is why it isn’t fine tune around the issue of these long long wait times?
I must say that yesterdays nationnews article detailing the Agony of long waits, gives the Minister’s excuse weight it does not deserve. Most of the patients interviewed by their own admission of symptoms and ailments could have gone to the nearest polyclinic rather than wait all those ungodly hours to be seen. But why is this so? why do people treat to themselves in this manner? I have often said of some of my family members that their seem to suffer from some morbid joy from being sick, they tend to speak of their ailment with a form of endearment, while looking perplex, confuse and annoyed when asked, so what are you personaly doing about it. Am i the only one that has experience this? could this be a part of the equation, of why the A&E sees about 40,000 people year? That Barbadians seem to have a love affair with being sick? or so they think.
February 14, 2007 at 11:11 pm
Can you imagine the AGONY of waiting
for anything more than half an hour MAX
with a Broken Freakin JAW??!
And this guy waited for something like 12 hours?
This is “Health Care” at its appalling worst!
The above comment re. triage makes much sense: why doesn’t QEH implement this system of prioritising patients seeking medical attention?
February 14, 2007 at 11:44 pm
12 years to fix a problem. That is a point being ignored.
February 15, 2007 at 1:59 am
Barbadians, I fear, see only the imperfections of QEH, which are many. If only they would compare our hospital with public hospitals in other countries not far distant, they would appreciate that we are not so badly off. Further afield they are often far worse.
Every member of my family has been in QEH at one time or another, one in an ambulance. The attention was far better than I dared hope. Maybe it is worse now, or maybe we are demanding the topnotch quality of hospital we see on TV hospital dramas?
Is there another FREE public hospital you know of where:
1. The meals are halfway decent?
2. There are enough doctors and nurses?
3. Everything works the way it should?
I doubt it. Let us keep up the pressure for improvement, of course, but accept that what we have could be far worse.
February 15, 2007 at 2:10 am
Hi Pandora
You make many good points, but after 12 years and a hundred or two hundred million on cricket… millions and millions and millions on flyovers and other frivolities (compared with so little on health, water, sewerage)…
There is no excuse for continuing to silently accept the deteriorating status quo.
February 15, 2007 at 2:27 am
Cliverton NSO-
I fully accept your stand that Government has its priorities RRRs-backward in putting CWC and flyovers ahead of the health of the country. Hospitals tend to be a bottomless pit for politicians.
With BFP’s pressure aided by your supportive bloggers, let us hope that when the last ball has been bowled, and the next election is on the horizon, we can pressure them into giving QEH and the whole health system the priority it deserves. I did not like the sound of Jerome’s recent TV warning about reduced medical benefits!
February 15, 2007 at 9:26 am
Mediocrity in other countries does not have to be accepted here. Particularly when free health care was one of the basic civilised amenities placed as important by the National Hero whom the island has just honoured, Errol Barrow.
Factors to consider also are that other countries have ample paid healthcare, for those that can afford it.
We only have the one ‘truly equipped’ facility!
Furthermore, the referred to comment of the Health Minister, which implies that there will be reduced Health Benefits for Barbadians in the future, just adds insult to injury.
And I MEAN insult. While money is frittered away on ridiculous, non money earning projects like flyovers, which provide no (yes, I mean no) social benefit, we are expected to accept inadequate healthcare, and pay more for it.
Do we really expect that in exchange for paying a bit more we will get better service?
Based on what experience here?
Fix it first, then maybe, just maybe Bajans can accept charges for specific expenditures.
But by gosh DO NOT, basically threaten our legitimate complaints on the state of Healthcare with threats of increased costs to us. Because that is what it amounts to, a threat, to make us back off.
Maybe we will see charges shortly, and thus it will be action, not just a threat.
Well, hoorah, hoorah. Action at last? Even if inappropriate (it would be better to fix the problem), I guess could be considered better than the pathetic inaction currently ongoing.
You know, the more that occurs the more I am convinced that the administration is very far removed from the average man in the street and his concerns.
I heard an ‘average person’ today on this issue.
I can tell you, (June?) going be real interesting.
Every vote will count.
February 15, 2007 at 9:33 am
PS: Has anyone REALLY thought about those comments comparing us to other places and that we should be happy with what we have.
You DO realise it is basically saying that mediocre Healthcare, and in some cases downright nonchalance re our lives, will do for us?
Now, in all its poverty and political quarrels with the outside world, has anyone heard anything but that Cuban Healthcare is very, very good?
So, who are we modelling ourselves after in Healthcare, the ‘third-world’ like Cuba, or the ‘first-world’ like USA, where you get wheeled back out of certain facilities if you do not have insurance?
I remember it is said that we want to be ‘first-world’.
Now it makes sense. First-world, with all its priorities and life priorities…or lack thereof.
No choosing of our own priorities. No discrimination of the good and bad in various models. Not choosing our own model, the best of all worlds, but choosing blindly and accepting whatever we get.
Bah humbug.
February 15, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Rumplestilskin , says,
‘ And I MEAN insult. While money is frittered away on ridiculous, non money earning projects like flyovers, which provide no (yes, I mean no) social benefit, we are expected to accept inadequate healthcare, and pay more for it ‘
Just a REMINDER, Rumplestilskin,
Among the list of extravagance and wastage by this BLP administration do not forget..the GOLDEN SHOWER at Silver Sands…and the new one slated for Browne’s Beach……!!!
These projects are designed the feather the NEST EGGS of the Ministers and their contractors……or is it….their husbands..???
Millions being…WASHED away….while the sick and poor/ not so poor….SUFFER..to their death at QEH…..!!!!
February 15, 2007 at 3:39 pm
The problem for us regular citizens without the $$$$$$ bills behind our names is that unlike the Dr Walcott’s and the Owen Arthur’s when they get sick they can afford to jump on a jet and be off to seek the best the world has to offer in terms of hospitals and doctors care whereas we have no choice but to sit it out and suffer like dogs at the mercy of those at the QEH in a badly out of date hospital low and behold if you require surgery who knows when that will happen.
Yet we keep getting told by those in authority things are improving at the QEH well lord help us if they are improving, Mr Walcott are you operating on the basis of if you say it often enough the general public will start to say it must be so.
You better get up of your ar—- and do something constructive and put in a few days work before the walls come tumbling down around you.
February 16, 2007 at 2:32 am
I speak as someone who battles from within the trenches daily. The situation at the Q.E.H is far worse than the public of this country imagines. Recent happenings in A&E dept. are merely symptomatic of the decay in the only tertiary care facility in Barbados. CWC 2007 is on our doorsteps and thousands will be coming to our shores, expecting at least basic medical care, (until air-ambulance arrives?) should illness occur. Hope in addition to showing the world our beautiful new stadium, our gross inadequacies in healthcare are not also displayed!
February 16, 2007 at 2:55 am
As Barbados develops, conditions at the hospital seems to deteriote even further. The Ministry of Health should publish statistics on mortality and length of recovery from common procedures, so that these may be compared from stats from developed countries.
February 16, 2007 at 2:56 am
It would be interesting to see if the PM or other government minister became seriously ill, whether they would seek medical treatment at the QEH or somewhere else outside of Barbados.
February 17, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Where were you when Rawle Eastmond was hospitalize? Short memory perhaps? too partisan to remember?
http://bararchive.bits.baseview.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=./pubfiles/bar/archive/2006/December/31/LocalNews/30925.xml&start=0&numPer=20&keyword=Eastmond+in+hospital§ionSearch=&begindate=1%2F1%2F1994&enddate=12%2F31%2F2007&authorSearch=&IncludeStories=1&pubsection=&page=&IncludePages=1&IncludeImages=1&mode=allwords&archive_pubname=Daily+Nation%09%09%09
February 17, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Mussee one a dem diabolical forces……
can pciture dat redhot face and two long curved horns…diabolical…
low blood sugar…
February 17, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Apologies, should not make fun of him for that, even if he probably did not have to go through A&E.
February 17, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I see the glowing, bow and scrape editorial in the Nation today, referring to a day of pride and the evidence of what we can do as a people.
We already KNOW what we can do as a people, we do not need further proof. If anything the need to prove something is in itself evidence of insecurity.
Bu the question is, why can ‘heaven and earth’ be moved for a new stadium, but NOT in addressing QEH and A&E problems?
Does SHOWcasing to the world matter more than SUSTAINANCE of lives?
If glamour more important than reality?
Priorities.
March 1, 2007 at 1:08 pm
To all concerned,
First off I would like to say” I’m not a member nor am I pro eighter policitical party”.
Healthcare is an issue of great concern to us all. We all want a fantastic system in which health care is give effectively and timely. The problem is – NOTHING IS FREE!
We, the average Bajan actually are in a very good state of healthcare, being offered much of the phrmaceuticals (free) as well as primary health care. (there are problems)
The question is- are we going to be able to continue to afford what we presently have?
Our demographics are not good here in Barbados, there is an inverted pyrimid where there seems to be less working people to people who would be utilising the HS- meaning the money is not going to be enough. The truth is poor management over the year since it’s conception (the healthcare system) cannot continue. We need difficult decisions made. (challenge to the Minister of Health).
The system may never completely collapse but without more and more funds being injected by Government, it is going to get really bad. Again the question-where is this money going to come from? More tax?
This is just humble food for thought.
March 1, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Upside? I am surprised he didn’t show his backside…