Nobody died today

I must sound like a cracked record, or should I say a scratched CD, but I see the 'nobodies' that suffer unnecessarily and even die prematurely because of the current public health-care system. I know that things are being slowly put in place to improve it; however, we are far from ready for a system of absolutely no user fees at public-health facilities.

True, user fees may be a barrier to health care for the poor but, here in Jamaica, even before the introduction of a fee-less system, only those who could afford it were paying. Consequently, the political decision to scrap fees not only added hundreds of thousands of users to an unprepared health sector, it literally threw away $1.7 billion of annual income.

The United Nations 2010 Report on the World Social Situation was used to justify the no-user-fee decision. However, that same report also states, "At the same time, removing fees will entail additional resource requirements. It is, therefore, important to ensure that additional funding is available for countries that want to remove fees. To support the permanent removal of user fees and to ensure that the poor benefit from such actions, fee removal needs to be part of a broader package of reforms that includes increased budgets to offset lost fee revenue." I, therefore, strongly believe that those who can pay should pay something for public health care.

And so, we come to the story of Miss Nobody. She was dependent on family, friends and the State for survival. She was poor and could not afford to go abroad when health failed. Nobody didn't even have a US visitor's visa; she was a private citizen and, therefore, the State would never use taxpayers' money to send the likes of her away for desperately needed assistance ... after all, she was not somebody.

Nobody became ill, was diagnosed with a cancer and was referred to a major hospital (February 2010), which eventually confirmed the diagnosis and booked her for a February 2011 appointment for assessment, before starting her badly needed cancer treatment. Nobody was given an extraordinarily long appointment for life-saving intervention because the health-care system that is "here to stay" simply could not accommodate her in reasonable time.

No aid for nobody

Repeated desperate efforts to extend her years, improve her quality of life and reduce her pain by decreasing her waiting time for medical intervention proved futile - the system that is here to stay would have none of that. Help for Nobody was postponed far too long and she fell seriously ill several months into her wait. Nobody was admitted to the hospital and offered supportive care. She was sent home to die when nothing else could be done for her. Nobody suffered immensely. Watching a loved one experience unimaginable pain and hearing that very special someone cry to the awful end is heart-rending - especially when it's all because circumstances have led the State to treat many people like nobodies.

As the Observer piece of Monday, March 7, revealed, that was similarly how the public health-care system that is here to stay treated recently departed "86-year-old vendor Ronald 'Skipper' Coombs, who for six months, from July last year to January, laid in a bed at the Kingston Public Hospital writhing in pain as he awaited surgery to repair a broken arm and hip".

The little people of this country entrust our leaders with their very lives. Yet, as you read this, because of the system, it is quite possible that another nobody died today.

Garth A. Rattray is a physician with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.