Submitted by C Newton
The pending industrial action at the QEH can only be about greed by the doctors and sensational behaviour of the NUPW. Speaking to a union delegate to the issue, it is a case of relief workers who are also called casual workers. These are only called in by management to fill in when someone is on holiday or sick leave.
The NUPW is claiming that they have an expectation to fill any suitable vacancies over anyone else. QEH Board has taken the position that it must hire the best persons at all levels, like private sector companies do, and are seeking to put clear recruitment policies in place.
As a former Salesman of Hospital Supplies, I will give an example. Meal carts being sold to QEH for as much as $10,000 when the real cost was $2,500 unpadded. Mr Dexter James, the Minister and Board must stop people from outsourcing to themselves. The mafia style syndicate must be broken up among QEH doctors and employees. Consultants cannot continue to give private patients priority over public ones. The QEH must work on a formula on consultants public private consultations, thus the resistance to accountability.
My girlfriend works in the Lab and has told me that many a times they are limited reagents. Yet some doctors would drop off their specimens from their private practice to be tested. Can these things be fair to the tax payers of Barbados? If the doctors want to strike let the greedy ones strike. I will give the Ministry of Health my support if they fire them for withholding services to the poor.
Some doctors even got the gall to charge more for first visits, thus pushing health care inflation to be the highest in the Caribbean. Mr Minister, you have my support, the QEH is ailing, you need to take corrective measures before it goes on life support.
Please give a chance to younger but often times better trained doctors, the chance to move up.
227 responses to “Are Doctors Fighting To Protect Turf At Queen Elizabeth Hospital?”
Mr Newton
“As a former Salesman of Hospital Supplies” what qualifies you to opine thus…..” Please give a chance to younger but often times better trained doctors, the chance to move up.”
On what basis do you figure that younger doctors are better trained doctors than the more senior consultant doctors?
Who trained the younger doctors?
Where were the younger doctors trained?
When did the younger doctors graduate? How much experience do they have?
When did the senior consultant doctors graduate? How much experience do they have compared to the younger doctors who they themselves trained?
Are the juniors you want moved up as qualified or experienced as their seniors?
Do you know anything—anything at all about what you are talking?
Are you a clown or a whole circus?
Re My girlfriend works in the Lab and has told me that many a times they are limited reagents. Yet some doctors would drop off their specimens from their private practice to be tested.
Do you and your girlfriend know why doctors dropped off specimen to be tested?
Do you know that there is something called the Public Health Lab to which any doctor can send specimens for testing at no cost.
Do you know that some of the tests sent to the Public Health Lab are sent to the QEH lab to be processed, and that the results are then sent back to the Public Health Lab before being sent out to the doctors.
Do you realize that a doctor who drops of their specimens from their private practice to be tested are merely short circuiting this process and doing a service to the patient?
I think that doctors who drop off samples are to be commended for their interest in their patients.
Have you had to wait three weeks or more to get a result from the . Public Health Lab by the lengthy process I outlined?
Mr Newton you show your ignorance of the system in local Hospital Medicine.
Do you have any idea how long BAMP members endure provocation before they strike?
Do you have any idea why the junior doctors are striking?
How can junior doctors strike because of greed? Are they striking about pay?
Consultant doctors don’t strike for pay either jackass. They work for government for a pittance.
When you come with your high handed ignorance and fire the consultants who will teach the students and juniors and supervise the juniors to maintain levels of care?
Mr Newton why don’t you stick to what you know, and forget your efflux from the vicinity of your shelves of Houston?
Stick to issues of Hospital supplies, but dont ranmble about things about which you know nothing.
Now please kindly wipe down your key board and monitor with toilet paper.
i noticed that BAMP’s statement said words to the effect that that their services to the patients would be effected but it was a necessary measure. it suggested to me that they were willing to sacrifice the health of the patient in order to force the hand of the Board. I know a patient who has been waiting for over 8 years for a hip operation, each time she has an appointment, she is given a drug for pain which effects the heart, the pharmacists are even surprised that she has been using it for so long, yet the doctors have not made plans for her operation, she gets dates but then they are cancelled., someone in administration told her that she should ask her doctor about medical aid as the government would pay him to do it thru that scheme. that is so wrong in so many ways, he cannot do it for her as a patient of QEH but as long as he is paid thru Medical Aid, he would make himself available. i had an experience once when I went to a polyclinic after work, the doctor there was about to leave and go to his private practice even tho he had 2 more hours of required service. he proceeded to go and became very agitated towards me but i told him that i know he should be at the polyclinic at that hour as i was aware of their times and government time was not his time to do his private work, his attitude change immediately as he figured that i would have complained which i was going to do in any case. i had to let him know that he and i work for the same employer in order for him to return to his desk. i should not have to do that and not everyone can.
Georgie Porgie // July 6, 2010 at 10:06 PM
Mr Newton’s lack of knowledge in certain aspects of the QEH does not necessitate your insulting remarks. the consultants might be paid a pittance to you but not to others. if they sign an agreement, they should honour it, if they cannot honour it go and do private practice. They want their cake and eat it too – they want the money from private practice on govt time, even tho they are given extra for the sacrifice of working in govt.
i do not give a rat’s bottom to what you think. they are a bungle of damn greedy people and think nothing of abusing their privileges. most also tend to assume that because they are doctors they have more intelligence than ‘non doctors’. You need to go take your arrogance to an area where the sun does not shine – when you get there use the same toilet paper you suggested Mr Newton should use, to clean up your open aggression towards his limited opinion. How’s that for ya? by the way guess my profession?
Sigh……here comes the fount of all knowledge on medical matters Dr porgie.
C. Newton, I and many other barbadians agree wholeheartedly with you because we who live here and have to endure the system know what is really going on.
The consultants rarely visit the public patients and leave everything to the young doctors,the same with the nurses and these senior doctors are a major part of the problem at QEH.
MINISTERS OF HEALTH COME AND GO FROM DIFFERENT POLITICAL PERSUASION,THEY EVEN HAD ONE OF THEIR OWN Jerome Walcott, WHO WAS A FORMER BAMP PRESIDENT WHO HELD THE POSITION OF mINISTER OF hEALTH AND YET THINGS DID NOT IMPROVE.ANOTHER DOCTOR ESTWICK CAME IN AND AGAIN THEY TRIED TO FRUSTRATE HIM.
W e pay a lot of our tax payers dollars for their education and very few of them are dedicated except to the dollar and their prestige.
Sorry about the CAPS did not realise it was on,too tired to retype all of that now.The point remains however.
Maybe it is the right time to seek Barbadian doctors working overseas and offer them attractive packages to return to the land of their birth to shake up some of these loathers.
I remember one Dr Brian Charles who earned a fortune from the QEH but essentially worked for more money in his own office and used the services of the QEH as if he owned them at taxpayers expense.
All in all I believe that all level headed Barbadians would realise that the QEH is a brute of an operation to run but Our Minister Mr Donville Inniss is doing a wonderful job of bringing it to order in his usual no nonsense style.Congrats to he Senator Irene Sandiford- Garner, Mr Guy Hewitt for the great job that they are all doing to keep our health services on track and functioning well, their task is not an easy one but they are doing it well, well done.
@GP
It is laudable you would support your own but like the case of the lawyers holding our Courts to ransom so too the many consultants who operate at the QEH. The media, BAMP and all of Barbados know about it. Like Crusoe mentioned sometime ago, it is time for CEO Dexter James to earn his keep.
This is an interesting debate, I heard of a pensioner, yes a pensioner, who needed a gall bladder operation and was told in May 2007 it will be done in September 2008. Surgeon had the gall to say, come up with some money and you can get it done in 10 days.
Are these the same consultants who have to put in some free service for using the hospital facilities as part of their contract,while earning in excess of $300,000 yearly.OMG. I hope the Minister stands his ground and junior doctor do not allow themselves to be used as pawns.
they need a private sector team to run the qeh
I am a little confused about points made in the original article. Is C Newton impying that doctors or NUPW members are responsible for buying overpriced meal carts? Surely there is a supplies or finance officer in the QEH administration responsible for that. And if private doctors bring in specimens to a public lab, is there not a policy in place for charging said doctors for this service. And if not, why accept the specimens when there are private labs in Barbados? My experience in going to doctors is that they charge more for a first visit but they spend the most time at that visit as they usually ask more questions and do an examination so I am not surprised when the fee for a first visit is more. And what is the evidence for there being younger but better trained doctors presumably being unfaired by the system and not being allowed to “move up”?. When they do move up and become consultants and go into private practice, will there then be complaints that they are not available to do public practice? Especially as they are “better trained” and will therefore be more marketable in the private sector?
I agree with Ms Anon however that doctors who work in both public and private practice should be called to account if they are neglecting their public patients for their private ones.I don’t know if the contracts for doctors speak to this or if the times they see public patients is monitored and is accountable. Is there an Audit department in the QEH or the Ministry of Health? I also feel that anyone who has had to wait eight years for an operation which can be done much more quickly in the private sector should write a letter to the Minister of Health, and maybe copy it to the newspapers as that is clearly way too long to have to wait!
When the previous government switch the arrangement governing terms and conditions of how the QEH was to operate there was the view that it would have been the panacea to address all that has been ailing the QEH over the years. Here we are with the politicos arguing for a new hospital but the infected culture remains.
It appears that either there is an urgent need for the Auditor General to do an analysis of the QEH operations, or whatever latest report has been done should be released /published.
That should clear a few things up.
@Crusoe
If it is left to you to be a purveyor of information for the good of the public please don’t be shy.
WIV when will you wake up and realise the folly of your ways… and comments
Micah
Like you “I am a little confused about points made in the original article. Is C Newton implying that doctors or NUPW members are responsible for buying overpriced meal carts? Surely there is a supplies or finance officer in the QEH administration responsible for that.”
Clearly if this is happening it should not be allowed.
Re And if private doctors bring in specimens to a public lab, is there not a policy in place for charging said doctors for this service. And if not, why accept the specimens when there are private labs in Barbados?
GO BACK AND READ MY COMMENTS ON THIS MATTER AND SEE THAT THE DOCTORS HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG.
The owner of the two private labs are my good friends. One of these worked in the hospital lab. As a private doctor I occasionally took specimens to him when I needed a quick result, and paid nothing I got a quick response and had the patient admitted long before the three week period expired if I had dropped them off at the Public Health Laboratory. My friend did not once ask me why I didn’t send any samples to his fee paying lab.
I used the Public Health Lab in private practice to save the patients money BUT RESULTS TAKE TOO LONG TO COME BACK.
I RESPECT THE JUDGEMENT OF ANY DOCTOR WHO BRINGS SAMPLES TO THE QEH LAB TO SPEED UP DIAGNOSES. IT SHOWS THAT HE CARES. OBVIOUSLY HE DOES NOT DO IT EVERY DAY OR BRING ALL OF HIS SAMPLES.
You ask a reasonable question
“what is the evidence for there being younger but better trained doctors presumably being unfaired by the system and not being allowed to “move up”?.
I agree that doctors who work in both public and private practice should be called to account if they are neglecting their public patients for their private ones.
Re
I also feel that anyone who has had to wait eight years for an operation which can be done much more quickly in the private sector should write a letter to the Minister of Health, and maybe copy it to the newspapers as that is clearly way too long to have to wait!
LOL And how will that speed up the process Sir?
Have you asked why this should happen? I do have an idea, but what is the point in trying to enlighten the public?
I am not saying that it should happen but I shouldn’t have to wait 10 years for the Courts to deal with a judgement I won either. Should I?.
You guys just sound off with emotions with out reading or understanding what is written or the circumstances.
It is so hilarious.
You have come out attacking me. And I am here in Florida lROTFLMAO because you are acting just as I expected.
I can see that I will have a ball today reading the bovine excrement on your emotional rants filled with ignorance about the “system that prevails” in Barbados.
I will be wiping my monotor constantly as the faeculent materials appears.
@ David
If you read my post again you will see that I have not attempted to defend anyone.
I have sought to highlight the ignorance of the poster about the training of junior and senior doctors and how the QEH lab/Public Health Lab works.
When you practice Medicine in a small island like ours, you need to understand the system and how it works, and who are the players that will make it work- and work for you. I always got the results I wanted.
Here is an example. One Sunday evening I saw a high ranking Public Official at St Joseph’s in 1984. I had some suspicions, and I gave him these instructions.
1 Return here on Wednesday afternoon to see Dr X
2 Take these forms to the QEH lab and ask for Mr G. He will do these tests for me
Monday evening on hois way home MR G passes by my home and drops of the results IN ONE DAY RATHER THAN THREE WEEKS!
I made cetain telephone calls with certain arrangements.
Tuesday morning I get a call at my home from the man’s private maguffy doctor.
I hear that you saw my patient Tom Dick. I replied Yes
He needs this done. I replied YES its been done
He needs to be admitted. I replied YES its been arranged.
SO TELL ME DAVID SHOULD YOUR PRIVATE DR TAKE SPECIMEN TO QEH DIRECTLY ?
YES IF HE CARES AND IF HE SUSPECTS THAT YOUR MALADY IS SUCH THAT HE SHOULD ACT IN LESS THAN THREE WEEKS.
Some one has mockingly said that I am the font of all knowledge on things medical. Well It ought to be clear by now that I know about what I speak. One wonders why no one else will come and share and enlighten our people on BU on such matters.
I hope you learned someting today from this short piece and that you will read my first post again and see the important points it makes, because they are relevant to the situation, whether folk like it or not.
We need to also enquire what treatment the PM had to recieve overseas and which obviously was not offered to him here by the QEH.
Anonymous.
Ya right man …….Sigh……here comes the fount of all knowledge on medical matters Dr porgie.
Believe me I KNOW THE SYSTEM AT QEH I TRAINED IN IT AND WORKED IN IT
And as much as you think you endure much, you should be thankful because in big powerful countries like the USA I have seen worse medical care, these past seven years and it is sometimes harder to get into the system even if you have the necessary insurance. I hear trying to get a dental appointment for over three weeks! If I was home I woulda gone and waited in some body office and done get through long time Ah lie?
Re C. The consultants rarely visit the public patients and leave everything to the young doctors,
HOW OFTEN SHOULD THE CONSULTANTS VISIT THE PATIENTS?
WILL MORE REGULAR VISITS BY THE CONSULTANTS RESULT IN MORE RAPID HEALING OF THE PATIENTS
DO THE JUNIOR DOCTORS NEED THE CONSULTANTS TO SEE THE PATIENTS MORE REGULARLY
DO THE CONSULTANTS COME WHEN REQUESTED TO DO SO BY THE JUNIOR DOCTORS
ARE THE MOST SENIOR OF THE JUNIOR DOCTORS (the Registrars) communicating with the consultants and receiving the appropriate advice?
ARE THE CONSULTANTS NEEDED TO COPME AND TOUCH AND HEAL AS IF THEY ARE JESUS?
Does any of this make sense?
Why do you say that that the Doctors tried to frustrate Estwick?
Do you really think that Estwick or Walcott were capable of doing the job needed?.
Do you think that Donville has a clue? Do you have a clue? Or are you merely engaging in an emotional rant?
What do you think is needed to change the system? Do you have any ideas, or only critical rants?
Re W e pay a lot of our tax payers dollars for their education
You are aware of course that much more tax payer dollars are spent on the education of those who get degrees in other faculties? You do know that many Bajan doctors are educated at their parents expense especially if they do not go to UWI?
You do know that many UWI trained doctors at QEH were not trained with Bajan tax dollars right?
Now I myself have never gone on strike on the two occasions when the fellas striked in my time, but wuh you tink? Doctors aint no body too? If others strike doctors cant strike too? LOL I am really enjoying these emotional irrational rants today.
Donald Duck Esq opined they need a private sector team to run the qeh
Donald of the Kingdom of the mallards, you of course know that all over the world in the “big” countries that many hospitals are private affairs and run by non medics. But guess what Sir. Hospitals need doctors. It takes time to train doctors. And doctors control hospitals in the final analysis. That is the nature of the beast. Get used to it. LOL
If you bring some non doctor to run the situation what is to stop the medical staff from giving each other sick leave? Or going on a go slow and just seeing life threatening patients, or just doing only emergency surgery, or taking twice the time to do a simple procedure so that at the end of one’s shift much elective work is still left undone. .
Remember the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Doctors are in the final analysis men!
Donald Duck Esq asked , We need to also enquire what treatment the PM had to recieve overseas and which obviously was not offered to him here by the QEH.
You do know that what ever special treatment the PM had to recieve overseas is NOT routinely offered at ALL Hospitals anywhere.
We need to applaud the treatments available at our small hospital in recent times don’t you think?
If I had spelt receive as you have, at least one moron would be commenting thereon.
@Doc GP
When a patient pays a QEH Consultant say $2000.00 to deliver a baby that patient will also pay the QEH the going rate for using the QEH facilities to deliver there. Do you know if said consultant is required to pay the QEH for using the QEH facility?
@David, Believe me I have no special knowledge of the siuation, BUT based on the above where some are making accusations on expenditures and operations there, the issue demands some sort of independent verification or rebuttal of accusations.
This is exacerbated by the current issue or contracts etc, which the Auditor General would also be able to assess i.e. whether proper protocol has been followed and whether the system is or is not being abused.
As I said, I have no specific knowledge, but do know and understand how an organisation should be run and how tranpsparency should impact actions and decisions.
Wishing In Vain
Re Maybe it is the right time to seek Barbadian doctors working overseas and offer them attractive packages to return to the land of their birth to shake up some of these loathers.
When I read the above I wiped my monitor furiously and furtively.
What will that attractive package be bosie?
Will the government also provide the equipment and facilities and conditions with which these fellas are accustomed to work?
You cant pay them and you cant give them the facilities, and you expect them to come and work for less than HH?
What bovine excrement!
Re Dr Brian Charles who earned a fortune from the QEH ?
I am sure that Dr Brian Charles actually worked when he got to QEH and did some good.
I am sure that he was not paid as well as HH for his efforts Ah lie?
You are definitely wishing in vain!
I wish I was the Minister of Health I would fire all them greedy doctors. Overcharging and dispensing service like a mass production factory. Always telling people to come back in six weeks or prescibing unnecessary procedures. We need to get rid of these greedy,money grabbing arrogant doctors who forget that the same people them overcharging paid for their education. Any doctor who with holds his service should be locked up and fired!
Crusoe
There is merit and wisdom in your post above.
David
As far as I know, I dont think that the consultant is required to pay the QEH for using the QEH facility. That is one of the reasonable perks of being a consultant.
Remember the patient can be delivered privately or as a public patient. Patients have that choice.
That is one of the reasons I left the Hospital as soon as I was finished by internship. I refused to do the donkey work for Consultants on thier private patients. I plainly told men I am paid to work on the public patients.
But all over the world if you want to advance in hospital medicine and thereby get the qualifications to be a consultant you have to put up with their nonsense.
Thats why I am a nobody today LOL
Mr Newton Sir
How do you know that the doctors overcharge? Do the carpenters plumbers masons etc not overcharge too? It started around 1981
How do you know that doctors dispense service like a mass production factory? Upon what knowledge and training and information do you base your opinion, Sir?
How do you know that doctors. prescribe unnecessary procedures? Upon what knowledge and training and information do you base your opinion, Sir?
Re Always telling people to come back in six weeks
What time frame you think they should use Sir?
Re . We need to get rid of these greedy, money grabbing arrogant doctors who forget that the same people them overcharging paid for their education.
I agree with you Sir. Then you and your girl friend can see the patients LOL
What a lovely emotional irrational rant!
Re
Any doctor who with holds his service should be locked up and fired!
I thought you said they were giving their services overcharging, dispensing service like a mass production factory, and telling folk to come back in six weeks?
Kammie Holder
Re I hope the Minister stands his ground and junior doctor do not allow themselves to be used as pawns.
Can I educate you one more about the system?
If the association decides to strike it means that junior doctors will strike. The association is made up of junior doctors and GP’s mainly.
GP’s will not strike. It does not benefit them to.
Consultants wont strike It does not benefit them to. And the poor people that like to go and pay them their money so that they can feel good to say ?My cardiologist” or :”My Paediatrician” will still attend then during the strike.
And if the association were to strike on behalf of consultants, junior doctor will strike.OK
Do you think that junior doctors will go against the consultants? NO WAY
Junior doctors need their consultants to sign them up so they can be registered.
Without registration you cant be a GP, you cant go for further training. You are nothing!
OK?
When the fellas decide to close ranks
Now for your pensioner who needed a gall bladder operation
Has it occurred to you that there is something called a LIST?
Do you think if it was an emergency that it would be put off until September?
Are you aware that some time is allotted for consultants to do their surgery on their private patients?
Are you aware that these same consultants operate on the public patients and teach junior doctors and medical students in the process.
Does this not come under “Are these the same consultants who have to put in some free service for using the hospital facilities as part of their contract”?
Do you understand that the surgeon gave the pensioner the choice to be a private or public patient?
Are you envious of the yearly earnings of these doctors? I have never earned half of that. But I don’t envy them Why should you?
I hope you learned a little bit today Kammie from he who is the “ fount of all knowledge on medical matters Dr porgie” LOL
@ Georgie Porgie
You too funny and sweet! I love you, man.
Thanks for enlightening us about how the Public Health Lab works, and about the System at the Hospital.
It is clear to me that all is not well. But your posts has explained a few things.
I am amused at the poster who attacked you for being arrogant and aggressive, because she then exhibited an obvious hatred and disgust for you in her even more arrogant and aggressive response.And she did this without adding anything of real worth to the discussion. Does she really think that someone cares what her profession is?
I hope that you will continue to edify us on Heath matters and our Heath System despite your obvious detractors. All the best! Keep on bringing facts and logic in your posts.
Oh I notice that Mr Newton or others have been unable to answer any of the questions you posed
C. Newton said:
“I wish I was the Minister of Health I would fire all them greedy doctors. Overcharging and dispensing service like a mass production factory.”
Are we criticising Barbadian doctors now? It seems like no professional body is immune from the wrath of BU commentators. Will the next submission be dedicated to the objurgation of accountants?
Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad… Seneca
Monica
Georgie Porgie got a woman a’reddy. Her name are JC and she am my frien, so move along smartly fa ma. Tanks.
David
Lord have mercy. You trying ta kill Bonny for what reason? How you expect ta put up a pic of my husband widout first notifyin me. Lorddddd, I almost deaded.
Mr.Minister of Health, Bonny am you #1fan.
Dr.Porgie
Did you work with a Dr. Michael Cadogan? He now resides in U.S?
Bonny
Can’t I give JC a horn or two?
BP
I dont know the Dr of whom you speak Ma’am.
And thanks for trying to keep me away from temptation
Micah // July 7, 2010 at 7:12 AM
“I also feel that anyone who has had to wait eight years for an operation which can be done much more quickly in the private sector should write a letter to the Minister of Health”
Her case was reported in the Nation newspaper about 3 years ago and she did write the previous party Minister of Health. NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE.
@Georgie Porgie
I wasn’t criticizing the doctors re: their free use of public lab facilities for their private patients, if there is a current system in place that allows that. I am however critical of a Government/Ministry of Health/QEH policy that allows private doctors to use publicly-funded labs for their private patients at no cost. I understand that private doctors wish to spare their patients expense, and get lab results back as quickly as possible to assist in the care of those patients. I am not sure however that taxpayer dollars should be used to benefit those patients if they have chosen private over public doctor care. There may be other factors involved in all that, and at the end of the day I agree that the doctors cannot be blamed for systems and policies they are not responsible for.
It has seemed to me that the public criticisms of the QEH, especially the Accident and Emergency Department, has caused concerns for politicians over the years, and led to changes in Ministers of Health with hopes of fixing the problems. I believe a sad story played out in the newspapers about how a poor Barbadian woman is being denied needed hip surgery at the QEH, being put on a waiting list, and being told she can have the surgery if she goes as a private patient and pay the “exorbitant” fees of a surgeon who works at the same QEH may at least cause an investigation to be ordered by a possibly-embarassed politician of what is happening with that patient in the QEH system. Maybe nothing will happen, but what does the patient have to lose? She has already spent eight years waiting!
@Bonny
You need to tell him in case he has not noticed that he is swelling up like a bull frog.
GP, could you tell me why a Doctor would deny a patient a tectnus shot for a nail juck, even after the patient ask about it?
I am still collecting the information but the patient was given a cream base epsom salts to put on his foot. days later the foot is swollen and painfull and this time the Doctors talks about a tectnus shot. Again I am collecting information so I may not have presented things correctly, and it is my hope that I did not. The patient who is related to me is now a patient at the QEH with concerns about losing their foot. I can gaurantee you that If the account is correct, that doctor will not be spared my wrath. An eye for an eye is how I looking at this.
Micah
Re I understand that private doctors wish to spare their patients expense, and get lab results back as quickly as possible to assist in the care of those patients. I am not sure however that taxpayer dollars should be used to benefit those patients if they have chosen private over public doctor care.
Sir Before I went to Medical School, I had a chance to work at the Public Health Lab. It is one of the great services offered to the people of Barbados by our Government LONG LONG BEFORE THE ADVENT OF THE FEE PAYING LABORATORY SERVICES OFFERED TODAY
Long before we had Spectrol and the other lab the Bajan populace had the benefit of the Public Health Lab. THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE! When private doctors use publicly-funded labs for their private patients at no cost THE PATIENTS BENEFIT!
Many doctors don’t waste time with the Public Health Lab now. They send the patients to PAY at the private labs mainly because they get back the results faster.
Re I am however critical of a Government/Ministry of Health/QEH policy that allows private doctors to use publicly-funded labs for their private patients at no cost.
I came and found the system. Obviously at some time the Government thought the service to be needful. It no doubt developed with the need to do certain tests such as VDRL’s and TB testing etc as The Public Health Services developed. It was a very good decision then
If our Government feels that patients should have the right to pay for the services of the Public Health Lab, they are free to change the policy. Don’t you think? Let them try And there will be an uproar from many
What about people paying for drugs and a consultation fee at the Polyclinics too? Eh?
I have already discussed solutions ON BU to address the situation that causes the public criticisms of the QEH, especially the Accident and Emergency Department, and I will not go over it now.
Why don’t you get the Minister who is paid very handsomely to address the situation of this poor Barbadian woman who is being denied needed hip surgery at the QEH?
Can you tell me to approach about the solution to claiming the money I won in a judgement in a case TEN YEARS ago? LOL.
@Anonlegal
Don’t we have the right to complain about things which we dislike?
The fact the QEH has been a problem plagued institution over the years would suggest general public who is affected by the fallout has a right to complain?
@Ms. Anon Well, if reporting of the woman’s plight in the Nation, and writing to the then Minister of Health did not work, I don’t know what will.
@Georgie Porgie. Unfortunately I am not in contact with the Minister of Health, and have no powers of influence over him. And I have no answers to how you will get your ten-year old judgment.
It strikes me that overdue satisfaction of legal judgments, and overdue medical care are both wrong, and yet I really don’t know what can be done about either of them…
Adrian Hinds
Re GP, could you tell me why a Doctor would deny a patient a tectnus shot for a nail juck, even after the patient ask about it?
The only reason I can think of is if the patient had a recent booster shot.
It seems that the patient was given Mag Sulp (magnesium sulphate) as a sort of poultice.
Remember a tetanus shot is a prophylactic against C Tetani (so when you say days later the foot is swollen and painfull and this time the Doctors talks about a tectnus shot. That does not sound like a big thing to me.) The big thing here seems to be an infection of some sort coupled with DIABETES. (Maybe this is how your relative is discovering that they have diabetes.)
Some people shout against the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. Maybe an antibiotic cream ought to have been used initially with some oral antibiotic cover after swabs were taken. Maybe this patient is now being discovered as a diabetic and has developed gas gangrene. NOW WE SEE THE NEED FOR SCREENING.
But this is all speculation based upon things I have seen when patients refused to carry out your instructions when you were seeking to ERR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION. (Remember the protocols that the Braying donkey said were obsolete?
But we cant adjudicate with out all the facts.
Hope this helps AH
David
Why are we complaining when we have Bajans who can be brought home, and paid well to fix the system?
LOL
David
As far back as 1994 there was a Bajan in the UK who had done exceptionally well in solid waste management who was willing to come home. NO INTEREST SHOWN.
At same time there was a French firm who proposed a scheme to incinerate our garbage and transfer the heat energy to electricity for our grid. REFUSED.
2008 Bajan teaches on BU how to run the NHS. NO interest. LOL And so we carry on.
This post should bring in BT to the debate! Phone him and wake he up! LOL
Monica
Nope, JC am my frien. I can’ condone she gettin ‘horn’. Uh-uhhhh.
David
Listen, I hate frogs wid a passion but he is one bull frog dat I would hold n squeeze n smotha wid sum gud luvin. He is so swoiteeeeeeee. He marrid doe?
Porgie
Dr. Michael Cadogan is an ex Comma-marian. He did his medicals in J”ca I tink but he came back here in the 70’s or 80’s and did a stint at QEH. Just thought that you knew him. He’s currently living in U.S with wife n three kids. Such a sweet fella but not as sweet as my Donville. Oh lawdddddddddddd.
Bonny Peppa
You not satisfied wid yuh bad back?
You wanna get diabetes too?
You want to go into diabetic ketoacidosis?
You see a coffin you like?
8 years ago in Basseterre two young women tried to sell me some sugar cakes on the side of the road. I tell them I give up sweet things cause I so sweet and wid a straight face I said I give a woman sugar the other day when I kiss she. I told her the woman nearly dead but lucky for me I had some insulin in my back pocket and give she an injection and bring she back!
So me and my buddy talked to the women for a while. When we were ready to go on to school I extended my hand to shake the woman hand.
She sings out MOVE I DONT WANT TO GET SUGAR! True True True
Talking bout talking iron? I learn it good at HC and UWI where men used to talk it like how de su dose shine.
Bonny… shhhh…Don’ tell nabody hear… but Monica and GP is one and de same person hear… HAHAHAHAHA
C Newton
But for de language barrier i would replace allota dese Bajan high snout rip off doctors wid Cubans… HAHAHAHAHA. Man you check de cost of emergency medicine dese days…? And wah happen to de good ol’ mid wife nowadays….
@Dr Geogie Porgie thank you for you lucid explanation. Please note I don`t envy a fella for what he earns, as a person who picks up bottles I can earn $4000 monthly. I had concerns and you responded. Thus I respect your opinions and realize if all of us agreed on everything, the world would lack excitement and variety. Its further hoped that as a brave and bold member of the medical fraternity that you will tell your colleagues when them unconscionable. No bull No bias!
BAFBFP@ 12:41 am: Never was a truer word spoken!
@ GP
The hospital situation is like a chronic disease. The internal politics and dynamics and the people there are what has poisoned the system to our detriment as Barbadians. It also makes change very very difficult. I used to get vex with the various Ministers of Health, not doing their job, but in the past few years after some incidents I relaise it is not just money. No Ministe rof Helath b? has been ableto wrassle this to the gorund. Thinngs that money can do are easy, but the systems and people issues plagues that institution. While I agree with your general points about the consultants, and we like to extend our abuse to everybody in a group and get wild with our conclusions, there will be some situations that can represent abuse.
For many years (10 or more) we had a situation at the hospital where the Xray department did have not working equipment, scanners etc. Head of that department owned a lab offering all those services and patients where referred there. I do not know what was the reason for not ordering the equiment. I cannot see why any director of the hospital would not order the equipment, because it was basic and so necessary especially for poor patients. I have heard some persons from hospital stating that it was done deliberately by the said doctor ( not putting in an order for the equipment) to build his practice. There might be another explanation. I do not know the facts about this but you might have greater inside info. but this specific situation always got my goat.
I am not using this as an example to condemn the whole, there is good and bad in every profession. what was the real thing behind this?
BAFBFP
Mawnin my rose petal. You mean dat Porgie is a transvestite? Ya lie.
Ya got that right Bonny
I was waiting on some one to come up with that bull about GP= Monica.
Expected better from BAFBFP though
Why doesnt he now identify Bagehot too?