The next decade....what's in store?

My dearest Michelle:

I won't bodda start! Gross mismanagement of funds. Basically it boils down a direct lack of accountability on the part of those who are in the seats where the decisions are made. It hits home when someone like yourself is faced with having to pass through one of our public hospitals. Believe me, even where I work (UHWI) is no paradise as nuh money nuh deh bout! There is little you can get out of the pharmacy without an outlay of funds.

The reason why you may have encountered a Doc from Asia (yes, they are usually quite polite) is that in many of those rural hospitals the backup facilities are minimal and there is little experience that can be gained in some of these 'dark holes' other than referring to Kingston for sometimes something as simple as an X Ray. Not many doctors wish to work in such environments...it tends to breed the practice of shabby medicine.

When last you pass thru UHWI?? If you don't habla Espanol, you salt. Many of our nurses now hail from Cuba as our good local nurses keep 'exporting' themselves (I can't blame them) to the US, Canada, Cayman and the UK where thay are being welcomed for decent salaries. I lift my hat to those who remain and continue to give their services here. (The doctors soon follow as well.)

We have been called upon to do 'more with less'! In some situations, nutten nuh deh deh already! I have bredrens who I know may think I am stupid for not having left my hospital job end gone full flegde private. But, I see it as my way of giving something back to the people of this country, and I basically got my medical training for likkle and nutten. (Not so for the present day medical student!) There are days though where the system can jus frus out a man! Nevertheless, we try and I think we accomplish a great deal with what we have. We press on.

I could go on, but this is not my blog. Might as well go have a drink wid a bredren lata, as this not helping....all o de Minister dem lay down over Tony Thwaites Wing or fly out to Miami in Air Ambulance when dem sick. They drive in luxury SUVs wid the AC on frigid. No KPH or UHWI for them. That is for common people! (Where did John Junor go when fe him prostate did a rotten out wid cancer?) Ever wonder why they keep the vast majority of our people illeterate?? Mek me stop yaw!

And BTW, I'm sure there is lots about the shistem that I will never fully comprehend!

Well i want PJ to go and stay at Noel Holmes Hospital. It's clear he don't know what is going on. They keep depending on Friends of This and Friends of That to fix up things. Not so. While that might be admirable for a service club to take on a project of that nature, it is every government's responsibility to provide proper health care, education, transportation and infrastructure for its constituents.

The last time I recall going to UWI (this is quite funny) was about 6 years ago. I had just picked up my niece from nursery, and I felt like one of my eyes got dark and i had a head ache. The hypochondriac (dat spell wrong!) in me swore it was a tumour pressing on something in my brain, or I was getting a stroke or aneurism (dat spell wrong too!) so I drove pronto to Casualty.

All I was thinking was please dont let the doctor who i had a huge crush on at the time be on duty. I cant remember if he was, but he wasn't the person who saw me. The one who did checked me out and told me I was fine. Pleasant bedside manners.

So I haven't had to stay, and thank goodness no one close to me has had to go into the hospital....until now.

pathethic, truly pathetic.

I like most of my Jamaican high school classmates got my medical education abroad and we are in awe at the conditions of the local hospitals. I can honestly say that a group of us are willing to give back our services back to our country as soon as we are in a position to.

I admire people like Dr. D...they are our country's treasures..He sacrifices wealth and foriegn for the love of his country. Trust me, he and others like him are extinct.

I pray that new people will enter politics and truly serve our country. And that people that have the mentalilty of our current politicians become extinct.

Sorry for the rant, but this issue truly irritates me...

Trish, the day name day when politician come in who consider things like the Noel Holmes hospital important will probably be the day when the world as we know it ends!

Hurry back. Just a few people can make a difference.

Just so you guys don't feel alone, the situation in Trinidad is about the same, and pretty much for the same reasons Dr. D outlined. We've just started importing Cuban doctors and nurses as well (we also have our fair share of Indian, and UN docs) to quite an uproar from the local medics.

A huge part of the problem here, though--depending on who you talk to--is that the local doctors who work in government service also have private practices, and many people feel that they give their own practices preference over their public work. I've even heard (unsubstantiated) reports of doctors sabotaging government medical equipment to force patients to seek private care. Of course, there's no way to prove this is true.

It's just terrible. makes you wonder why you pay taxes, and wonder what's the real responsibility of the government of the day. Imagine if 30 years ago we had invested seriously in our medical services, how first world they would be today.

But I say first world rather loosely, as while in England, there was nuff uproar about the NHS too. But it was never about the condition of th hospitals, but more to do with the wait to get an appointment for surgery.