Hospital managers urged to ease wait times

WESTERN BUREAU:

Blame for inordinately long wait times for medical treatment has been placed at the feet of hospital managers who have been urged to organise human and other resources to offer efficient service to patients.

But St Andrade Sinclair, the acting regional director of the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), has cautioned that a one-size-fit-all performance regime would not be practical because of each facility’s unique deliverables.

“Every [hospital’s] demographic is different, and you have to deal with it relatively,” Sinclair told The Gleaner on Tuesday.

“What would happen at Noel Holmes Hospital, in Hanover, cannot be the same thing that happens at the Falmouth Public Hospital, in Trelawny, or the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), in St James.”

Delayed treatment has been the bane of Jamaica’s public health sector, with overflowing wards and choked waiting rooms the perfect storm for explosive disputes with medical staff.

Those concerns have drawn national outrage over the past year, with COVID-19 causing public hospitals to creak under the weight of overcrowding. Stigma and fear surrounding the contagious respiratory disease have also caused healthcare workers to be more restrained about physical engagement.

Complaints have caused a stir at hospitals under the purview of the WRHA, especially Cornwall Regional, where persons sometimes spend days seated in wheelchairs - or even on the floor - awaiting bed space.

Sinclair said that, on average, patients should not expect to wait for treatment for more than three hours, with emergency cases being given greater priority.

“You have to be triaged, and after you get triaged and they separate you, you will be seen based on the urgency,” said Sinclair.

“That means that if you do not have a gunshot wound, or you do not have something that is near death or otherwise pressing, you will not be seen immediately.”

The Ministry of Health & Wellness has urged Jamaicans to visit health centres for minor or non-emergency cases, but many people still turn up at hospitals for care. Health centres, too, are often affected by overcrowding.

Sinclair is urging the public to exercise patience as restoration work, which has been hobbled by the COVID-19 pandemic, will resume at Cornwall Regional in another month.

Construction of the nearby Western Children and Adolescents Hospital will also resume shortly.