HEALTH Minister, Ruddy Spencer, yesterday ordered an investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of Hyacinth Wilks, a former patient of the Linstead Hospital in St Catherine.

Wilks’ sister, Dorothy Rainford Essor, told the Sunday Observer that bureaucracy and lack of compassion at the hospital were the causes for her sister’s death.

Yesterday, the ministry said Spencer had requested a full report on the matter, within 48 hours, after receiving a preliminary report.

“The ministry had previously received the complaint, through its complaints mechanism and an investigation had started,” the ministry said in a statement. “The minister received a preliminary report this morning and has requested a full report in 48 hours.”

Hyacinth Wilks was taken to Linstead Hospital on Saturday, October 6, where it was discovered that she suffered a stroke on her right side and could not speak.

The hospital did not have a computed tomography (CT) which is used to determine the scope of the stroke and so her family requested that she be transferred to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), in Kingston. However, Rainford Essor said Wilks was transported to the UHWI by ambulance without any medical personnel at 10:00 pm. The CT scan was performed at 3:30 Sunday morning.

“The doctor asked me what the doctor in Linstead had said and I told him that [he] had requested that when the CAT scan was completed, the doctor was to call him to assess the situation,” Rainford Essor told the Sunday Observer. “The doctor then asked me to give him 10 minutes. He went into his office and after some time returned and advised me to transport Mrs Wilks back to Linstead.”

When they got back to Linstead three hours later, the doctor in charge who assessed Wilks with a 30 per cent chance of survival, also gave the family the option of transferring her for better care. The family decided to take her to the Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston. However, the family was denied the use of an ambulance at the hospital. When the alternative arrived it refused to transport Wilks without the presence of a registered nurse and while the family went search of a nurse, Wilks’ health deteriorated and she later died.