Port Maria Infirmary OK, but ..... Bathroom facilities stink
Published:Sunday | April 10, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Apart from the filthy bathrooms, the Port Maria Infirmary in St Mary is pristine compared to the Golden Age Home in Vineyard Town, Kingston.
A visit to the Port Maria Infirmary last week revealed that the female bathroom was in need of repairs but the male restroom was unfit for human use. The floor of the restroom was murky and slimy. The shower stall was in a similar condition.
In addition, the doors on the male dorms were broken and in need of repairs. However, despite the infrastructural defects, the staff members at the Port Maria-based institution seem to be running a tight ship. The corridors were clean.
The dorms did not have that overpowering smell of faeces mingled with urine as was found elsewhere.
Last week, a Sunday Gleaner exposé revealed the abuse and neglect, compounded by substandard conditions at the Golden Age Home in Kingston.
In the wake of The Sunday Gleaner's undercover investigation that has spawned calls for resignations, Robert Montague, state minister with responsibility for local government, ordered an emergency meeting of the home's board.
After deliberations, the 15-member board subsequently appointed a six-member subcommittee, led by its chairman, Rion Hall, and Professor Denise Eldemire Shearer of the board of supervision, to investigate the issues highlighted in The Sunday Gleaner.
Meanwhile, an elderly resident at the Port Maria Infirmary complained about the lack of food at the institution. "When things rough, it just rough. We need a lot of stuff; food and so," the senior citizen lamented.
The wards at the St Mary-based infirmary were either on their beds or in wheelchairs. Unlike the Vineyard Town home, the Port Maria Infirmary did not appear to have a fly infestation problem.
The Kingston-based home for the less fortunate has fallen from grace, it seems. Back in the days, the Vineyard Town home was the jewel of infirmaries. In 2004, The Gleaner reported that official reports on the status of infirmaries across the island fell just short of saying that the institutions were disasters waiting to happen.
resources inadequate
A 1999 report on the status of infirmaries, commissioned by the Programme Coordinating and Monitoring Unit at the Office of the Prime Minister noted that the health-care services were less than desirable as the human resources available were grossly inadequate to deliver the quality services desired.
"The physical conditions of the plants require immediate and significant refurbishing and renovation. The infirmaries are not being provided with adequate financial resources to cover the necessary and inescapable recurrent and capital expenditures," read a section of the report.
It called for an urgent overhauling of the facilities of the 13 parish council-run infirmaries, which housed about 1,500 people at the time. However, the findings contained in that 1999 report did not apply to the Golden Age Home, which is run by a board of directors and an administrator.