Mandeville Hospital critique over the top
Published:Sunday | December 9, 2018 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
The Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) thanks Byron Wilson for his observation in the Letter of the Day titled 'Mandeville Hospital run to a wreck', which was published Friday, December 7, and regrets the negative experience he had.
Mandeville Regional Hospital (MRH) continues to strive for excellence but respectfully disagrees with the headline of the story. With an estimated 35,000 persons accessing inpatient and outpatient services at the MRH monthly and an average 4,500 persons visiting the Accident and Emergency Department (A&E) each month, the medical and administrative staff must be commended.
While the hospital tries its best to follow and maintain its cleaning schedule, there are some persons who contribute to the problem, and we encourage them to take better care of the facilities. The bathrooms in the A&E Department are refreshed every hour, and there is an assigned employee responsible for the general cleaning of the area.
Regarding his observation of "15 patients, most with drip apparatus attached with nothing coming, because they were empty and appeared to have blood on the reverse", there are situations where persons with empty drip bags wait for review after completing initial treatment. Once turned off, there is no threat to the patients' well-being.
The SRHA has been consistently trying to improve customer care through training but recognises that there are still instances where it does not meet the public's expectations. We welcome the public's comments to help us improve and urge visitors and patients to direct their complaints to Complaints Officer Beverly White (beverly.white@srha.gov.jm, tel: 876-793-6495).
LATOYA LAYLOR BROWN
PR Officer, SRHA