By Caribbean News Global contributor
CASTRIES, St Lucia – The proclivity to Saint Lucia’s current health care and facility services has ostensibly made some good arguments for the competence and usefulness of Bush Doctors of ancient history, notwithstanding the advancement of science and technology.
Bush doctors are knowledgeable of medicinal and local plant materials and provide affordable medicines to the disadvantaged. In our environment, the practice is commonly used and has historical value, albeit, modern compounds and prescriptions and the construction of modern – state-of-the-art medical facilities.
But have we, as a society evolved, amid the propaganda of healthcare advancement and the reality that engulfs current discontent?
Irrespective of the state-owned and/or managed in whole or in part, healthcare facilities, the complicities are the same. “Saint Lucia’s healthcare system is simply decrepit, directionless and dysfunctional.”
In a short pants moment of contemporary times, the Owen King EU Hospital (OKEUH) of the Millennium Heights Medical Complex (MHMC) in response to the “overcrowding and resultant increased waiting times being experienced in the Accident and Emergency Department (AED),” issued an advisory stating what many know and experience all too often, and acknowledge, that our health care system is a mess!
“Over the past 12 months” recites the “OKEUH/ MHMC public advisory, there has been a steady increase in patients with serious illnesses requiring admission to the hospital creating a severe shortage of inpatient beds. There are more than 50 admitted patients in the department currently. All the existing wards at the hospital are at full capacity and patients requiring admission must now be managed within the Accident and Emergency Department (AED) for extended periods before they can be transferred to a ward.”
The OKEUH/ MHMC public advisory continued:
“Members of the public are therefore advised that if their medical complaint is neither serious nor life-threatening, they should seek options for care other than the Accident and Emergency Department where they can receive the appropriate treatment.”
The question ensued: How can an amateur know if their “medical complaint is neither serious nor life-threatening?”
A request for comment from a medical doctor went unanswered, at the time of publication. (New Year’s Eve. This is understandable!)
I checked with Google:
“What is an unqualified person claiming to be a doctor called?
“A quack is a “fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill” or “a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, qualification or credentials they do not possess; a charlatan or snake oil salesman.”
Over the years, successive governments have not applied the relevant competence and capital to resolve health care on the island. However, the old phenomenon and failed solutions seem to worsen by the same old generators of the problem and expecting different outcomes.
The OKEUH/MHMC public advisory said nothing of competence on how the current situation will be fixed, much less, provide a path forward out of a bad situation.
The OKEUH/MHMC public advisory said:
“Patients are further advised to utilize the services of the following polyclinics: Gros Islet Polyclinic and the Dr Betty Wells Urban Polyclinic (located at the former Victoria Hospital) and health centres in close proximity to their homes.”
As previously explored, polyclinics, health centres, and a functioning hospital have different meanings, functionality and service parameters! Conversely, there seems indifference to messaging and communication, however, persistence is subject to a limited understanding of medical jargon that reads:
“All patients with life-threatening conditions who present to the AED will continue to be seen and treated immediately and patients with serious conditions will also be treated as high priority. Other patients who present to AED at this time will experience extended waiting times until this overcrowding situation is rectified,” OKEUH/MHMC.
Repeatedly, reality surfaces to emphasise: “The strides towards a healthier future for Saint Lucia require massive restructuring, not inclusive of incompetence and political affiliation. The broad consensus is that Saint Lucia’s health care is not on the right track!”
A visit to the hallways of OKEUH, tells the story of ‘hallway patients,’ and the George Odlum National Stadium, serving as the St Jude Hospital, since 2009. And in a measure of solace, the government of Saint Lucia (GOSL) says St Jude will be commissioned in 2025. Aside from this, (GOSL) has a responsibility to tell the people the truth!
The question remains: What type of facility Saint Lucians are going to get?
Previously, the St Lucia Medical and Dental Association said publicly that: “ The problems are truly too numerous to quantify” … “How are physicians expected to treat life-threatening illnesses without the basic drugs that allow us to provide standard-of-care management?”
The article, ‘St Lucia’s healthcare needs a major overhaul’ September 18, 2019, reads:
“The dispensation of health care has become a profession of injustice which may have likely sprung up from corruption and greed at the expense of the poor and the most vulnerable in Saint Lucia. Whatever the case, it is immoral for any government to deny inherent fairness and basic human rights of its citizens, in contravention of the United Nations human rights charter. ~ Harvey Cenac. “The institution of government right now in Saint Lucia is in direct contrast to the basic tenants of the UN – Universal Declaration of Human Rights and/or serving the needs of the working class on matters of health care and services.”
The fundamental situation of health care in Saint Lucia is more grievous, than meets the eye and what the GOSL pronounces.
Saint Lucia has a huge problem heading into 2025 with overcrowded hospitals and comatose health care, an overcrowded prison, record homicides, and – a fear of the dark.
The striking exception to Saint Lucia’s health care is a response and messaging that ostensibly “evades” – “redirect” and “not intended to calm public anger, fear and discontent, with practical solutions.”
Dereliction of duty, diversion, hiding from reality, and telling a lie, (deliberately and repeatedly) are tenets of corrupt governance. The orientation to such can be found in an ideology rooted in political irrationalism.
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