Public-health sector lacks transparency

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

LAST WEEK'S tragic news of the body of an armless infant mysteriously dumped on the premises of the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH) has yet again highlighted what appears to be the abject lack of transparency in the public-health sector.

The plethora of heart-rending reactions to The Gleaner story of a newborn - no more than three days old - which was found by the police on the hospital premises, serves as eloquent testimony to the feeling of emotions this tragic occurrence has generated in the public domain.

As the police attested, the spectacle was made particularly gruesome by the fact that the infant's two arms were missing and his face gnarled, supposedly by stray animals. The situation was exacerbated by the extreme tardiness of public-health officials to respond to public concerns. This seeming reluctance to be transparent conveys the impression that hospital officials always have something to conceal.

In doing so, the sector seems to be making a mockery of its mandate to ensure access to a sustainable, responsive and effective health system that is customer-focused, stakeholder-driven, and facilitates the health and well-being of members of the public.

Poor communication

The health sector, with its excessively huge management team in public hospitals, as well as the top-heavy regional health authorities, is clearly in need of communications experts to replace those who cringe and cower at the sight of media personnel. I submit that the sector would be far more effective in garnering public confidence if it were more constructively communicative.

For years, the gamut of allegations against the organisations in the health sector by aggrieved, dissatisfied or disgruntled members of the public-health sector, which has been mandated to provide quality health care, has been scary at best.

This ranges from the disgraceful treatment of patients by non-medical staff as well as other medically related allegations that command legal action.

Tragically, at the end of the day the tax-paying public is never left feeling satisfied with the explanations proffered by the hospital manage-ment or the regional authority.

In the case of last week's incident involving the infant at VJH, The Gleaner spent the better part of the day trying to contact the thunderously silent Health Minister Ruddy Spencer, the chairman of the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), Lyttleton Shirley, or just about any senior persons who could shed light on the issue.

None was forthcoming until after The Gleaner reported that staff members claimed that the infant was thrown from the building and readers reacted in horror. Late in the day, Shirley rushed to dismiss the claims.

Casting more doubt

Sadly, the SERHA chairman's belated response, even if true, served to cast more doubt on the issue rather than to clear the air.

This is consistent with the attitude of health officials over the years.

When a male patient was allegedly assaulted by non-medical staff members and thrown out of the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) a few years ago, an investigation was promised. Nothing was ever heard of it. Several months after the incident, the victim told this reporter that he was never contacted.

When patients - some mothers who had just given birth - who could not afford to pay or refused to pay the then user fees to VJH, the media reported that they were shoddily treated. In one case, the mother was seen seated on a tough bench, weeping and waiting for her release before she was relieved from her suffering.

Nothing came of the complaints - or, the results were kept from the public. A staff member said nothing ever came of the complaints.

But the lack of transparency is not confined to the KPH and the VJH.

Years ago the disappearance of 'Baby Pansy', an infant born to a woman named Pansy Campbell at the Mandeville Regional Hospital, became the biggest mystery story for months.

The infant's mother was told that her infant had died at about 10 days after birth. The suspicious mother asked for proof. In the succeeding weeks, one DNA test after another was carried out on deceased infants, but none turned out to be Pansy Campbell's child.

In the end, the Government had to pay for the carelessness of persons at the hospital.