Waterford Health Centre ‘bursting at its seams’ - Privacy, infrastructural concerns dog patients
Published:Tuesday | February 9, 2021 | 12:22 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
Residents of Waterford in Portmore, St Catherine, are calling for urgent upgrades to the community health centre, which they believe has outlived its usefulness due to population growth even as the physical structure deteriorates.
Constructed in the latter part of the 1970s, the health centre was created to serve the health needs of the Waterford and Independence City communities, but now has to serve residents from communities as far as Bridgeport, Newland, Christian Pen, and Gregory Park.
This increased patient volume has placed additional demands on the type 2 facility, which lacks adequate space.
The residents complained to The Gleaner that the health centre also lacks adequate restroom facilities with just one bathroom for males and females. It also does not have proper storage for medical waste, they claim.
The issues, they say, impact general health service delivery, which is of concerns to them.
Eighty-seven-year-old Hilda McAnuff, a Waterford resident who has been visiting the facility for the past 37 years, was standing outside in the scorching heat when The Gleaner visited the health centre last Friday. Having undergone a surgical procedure, she was there to get dressing, but had to wait over an hour for the service.
“A di worse service mi ever get. We need more nurses and benches to sit on while we wait. We need a proper waiting area. Right now, we have to stand in the sun for a long time,” she said.
Bridgeport resident Joyce Midgley, who uses the facility for her clinical needs, also said the conditions were deplorable.
“The building needs painting and general renovation. Also, elderly sick people have to wait for hours before they are called in,” she told The Gleaner. “We are here sometimes from 6 a.m. to noon and we still don’t get through. The building is too small to accommodate the traffic.”
Lack of privacy
For Althea Wilson, who lives in Waterford, the lack of privacy was causing uneasiness her and other patients.
“Because you have two doctors in a little room, we can’t even explain to the doctor about our complains the way we want due to the fear of the other patient with the other doctor hearing what we are saying. This is not good,” Wilson said.
Responding to the complaints, Waterford councillor Fenley Douglas agreed that the present situation demanded urgent attention.
“It is clear that this facility has outlived its usefulness and needs to be expanded. It is bursting at the seams and the patients are the ones who are suffering. Two doctors working from a 8 by 8 room just won’t cut it,” he told The Gleaner.
He suggested that temporary tents be erected to serve as waiting areas and lamented the lack of a proper disposal facility for medical garbage, citing the potential health risks.
St Catherine South Eastern Member of Parliament Robert Miller said that he has consulted with Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and that there are plans to construct a new state-of-the-art health centre.
“The residents’ concerns are valid. I have seen the conditions first-hand,” he said. “We have identified lands. The plans are with the National Health Fund. The minister and I, after doing a tour of the facility, decided that I should fast-track plans for the relocation of the health centre.”