Come talk to us: Hospital invites complainant to spill the beans

Regional Director of the North East Regional Health Authority (NERHA), Fabia Lamm, is inviting the author of a damning letter on service at the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital (SABRH), published in The Gleaner last week, to make an official complaint so the matter can be sufficiently investigated.

The letter made several allegations about poor service at the hospital, including that of money having to be paid by patients to staff in order to get attention.

Acknowledging that the situation at the facility was not ideal, Lamm suggested that poor and improper service at the hospital can be eliminated if complainants are prepared to come forward.

“Come and talk to us, our office here in Ocho Rios, the staff at St Ann’s Bay. If the complainant does not wish to go there for whatever reason, they can come to our office here in Ocho Rios, my staff is here who will sit with them, hear the complaint, get the specifics and we’ll do the investigations and keep them informed on the progress,” she told The Gleaner.

Referring to the letter, Lamm said: “It is going to be very difficult for us to address these matters without additional information. What we’re trying to do is to just explain to the public that within the North East Regional Health Authority (St Ann, St Mary and Portland), at all our hospitals we have staff employed to deal with patients’ complains and concerns, even to take their recommendations. Each hospital has a fully functional customer service department, the Ministry of Health has policy guidelines in relation to how we address customer complaints, we call it the customer service mechanism, and that is implemented and working in the facilities.”

She added: “Whenever anybody has any issue with any service related matter at any of our hospitals, we need their assistance to do the necessary intervention and investigation that will be required. For us to move forward we would need specific details in relation to the complaints and the article in the paper is very vague, and so what we’re asking the person to do is reach out to us.”