Health care denied! Patient load overwhelms doctors, nurses at Spanish Town health facilities

Edmond Campbell and Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporters

THE ST JAGO Park Health Centre in Spanish Town, St Catherine, is under increased pressure from a spike in patient load caused by referrals from the equally over-burdened Spanish Town Hospital. The institution is now struggling to deliver health care to persons who are agitated by long delays in getting help.

This overload has triggered rising tension between officials at the hospital and the health centre.

The Sunday Gleaner understands that, under pressure, the two facilities have been dispatching persons in need of medical care from one institution to the other.

Patients caught in the middle are euphemistically peeved with both institutions, as they demand medical attention in a reasonable time.

A Sunday Gleaner team visited both institutions last week, where disgruntled persons complained bitterly that they had to wait for many hours, in some instances, having to return the next day, before receiving medical care.

At least one elderly woman said she had to stay overnight in the hospital's waiting area, to get the treatment she needed.

She was asleep with her head resting on the back of one of the chairs when our news team approached her for an interview.

The frightened and tired senior citizen attempted to defend herself, as she did not know who had awoken her.

After realising no harm was imminent, she spoke freely about the delay she suffered in her bid to access the public health care.

Wrning of lengthy delays

But the writing, warning of the lengthy delays, was on the wall, literally.

The hospital indicated in notices placed around the casualty department that it could only deal with emergency cases because of staff problems.

This is little comfort to many people who have been directed to the institution where hundreds wait to see a doctor.

A member of staff at the health centre who spoke with The Sunday Gleaner on condition of anonymity confirmed that some members of the public who first visited the hospital were sent to the health facility without being screened by medical personnel.

Efforts to get a response from the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) were futile.

Questions sent to Taneisha Lewis, public relations officer at SERHA, were not answered despite several follow-up telephone calls which were met with promises to provide the information.

However, on November 10, SERHA issued a press release announcing some of the problems patients would encounter if they sought treatment at the Spanish Town and Linstead hospitals.

"The South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) wishes to advise the public that it is working assiduously to resolve staffing issues which have resulted in extended waiting periods at the Spanish Town and Linstead hospitals in St Catherine.

"We have been experiencing challenges in adequately filling some of the vacancies in these two hospitals.

"As a result, we have noticed that the waiting time for patients is longer than the standard set for satisfactory patient care. We are, therefore, working to address this problem in short order," read a section of the SERHA release.

The SERHA release, which failed to say when the situation would be remedied, urged the public to utilise "their neighbourhood health centres for non-critical medical conditions until the matter is resolved".

There are 27 health centres in St Catherine.

And, like the hospital, the inadequate staff at the health centre adjacent to the hospital is leaving that facility overstretched.

Evening clinic stopped

Another problem at the health centre is the cessation of the evening clinic which helped to facilitate persons who need medical care late in the day.

The Sunday Gleaner understands that evening clinic was suspended because of a dispute over the payment of overtime to some categories of workers.

"There are times when a doctor will give out 100 numbers, but by the time those persons are registered, the benches are full again because they keep coming over from the hospital, they keep coming throughout the day," a worker at the health centre told The Sunday Gleaner.

When approached, Paul McIntyre, operations manager of the St Catherine Health Services, refused to disclose the reason behind the suspension of the evening clinic close to a year ago.

He asked that our news team put the question in writing.

McIntyre sought to downplay impact of the increase in the number of patients in recent times.

Meanwhile, another worker revealed that a bleeding gunshot victim was sent from the hospital to the clinic for treatment.

The wounded man was reportedly sent back to the hospital, but was returned to the health centre because the hospital was not equipped to assist him.

Ian Allen/Photographer