On May 16, 2008 BU featured Chris Halsall’s submission which questioned what he viewed as a few inaccuracies printed in the Advocate newspaper. Although he conceded on one point he has remained steadfast on the other points that he raised. At the prompting of a BU family member, and in the same vain as Chris Halsall, we wish to question a recent Nation editorial. We anticipate the now predictable responses from Bush tea et al and our retort is: although we are being critical of the Nation newspaper there is a bigger point at stake, i.e. lack of efficient policy formulation at the highest level in Barbados.
The gist of the Nation editorial seems to be suggesting that the PEOPLE should stop bashing the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) because when compared to the others in our region, we are by far more superior. What a dumb position to take! In other words, Barbados should benchmark our historically high health-care standards to others in our region which maybe described as mediocre at best.
Barbadians who have enjoyed a high standard of health-care must now ignore the following?
- A hospital that allows its stock of iodine to become depleted to so endanger its cancer patients?
- Should sick Barbadians expect their lifes to be threatened because inefficient management systems at the hospital permits the electrical power room to be sabotaged with ease?
- What about the current climate which has stakeholders at the hospital e.g. nurses, doctors, administration staff to constantly go public to highlight shortages of key supplies, mal-working equipment and other inefficiencies to numerous to mention?
- Cancellation of operations to be performed on long suffering Barbadians because of an ineffective campaign to top-up the blood banks.
- Last but not least has been the vexing issue of transitioning the Board from under the thumb of the bureaucratic civil service to that of a Board. In recent days, we have had the incumbent Minister of Health David Estwick sponsoring a change to the relevant legislation which allows him to appoint a significant number of Board members.
It is not unreasonable for Barbadians to expect a high standard of healthcare from our healthcare providers for two main reasons, a large slice of the budget is allocated in the budget to finance health-care in Barbados and Barbadians are very heavily taxed! So many issues in our society seem to be emerging because of a lack of efficient policy formulation.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.