THE Kingston Public Hospital has been without a functioning CT scan machine for more than three months. As a result, patients at the English-speaking Caribbean’s largest health institution are struggling to have scans done promptly, as the hospital has been forced to seek alternative ways of handling patients who need scans.

Some patients, who cannot afford to have scans done, have been told that they need to fork out money in the region of $40,000 to have scans done privately.

The cash-strapped hospital, in the meantime, assists some patients by sending them to private health care agencies and institutions, but the list of patients in need keeps getting longer.

“The situation is bad down here,” an official at the hospital told the Observer this week. “The CT scan that we have is fairly new, but it has gone bad already and cannot be used. It is posing a serious problem for the patients,” the official said.

The hospital’s senior medical officer, Dr Patrick Bhoorasingh could not be reached for a comment, while Health Minister Rudyard Spencer was said to be dealing with matters related to his campaign in the upcoming general election when the Observer tried to get a comment from him.

Meanwhile, the Opposition People’s National Party spokesman on health, Dr Fenton Ferguson, in a news release Thursday, said that the situation was desperate.

Dr Ferguson, in the news release, said that the country’s already ailing health sector has now been effectively crippled by the unavailability of ambulances and vital medical equipment as well as the existence of a $3-billion debt to suppliers.

Dr Ferguson drew attention to what he said was the latest incident involving a seriously ill patient who is said to have suffered a stroke and who had to wait for hours to be taken to and from the privately operated Apex X-ray and Ultrasound facility in Kingston, because the CT scan machine at the KPH has not been working for three months.

Additionally, Dr Ferguson said, health facilities in Kingston and St Andrew are reported to have only one functioning ambulance, which itself is unreliable.

“The Opposition, after all our warnings and advice to the Government over time, is particularly alarmed at the state of the ambulance service across the country and especially at the KPH — Jamaica’s premier health institution,” Dr Ferguson said.

Dr Ferguson is calling on the minister of health to tell the country his plans to fix the ambulance service in the sector, how he is going to deal with the arrears to suppliers, and to give some clarity in relation to the present health policy of the Government.

The shadow health minister is reminding the country of several warnings he has given in relation to the state of our healthcare system. He points out that security at health facilities have also broken down to the point where gunmen have invaded the Bustamante Children’s Hospital twice; the Spanish Town Hospital twice as well; the Cornwall Regional Hospital on two occasions, with the attempted rape of a female doctor there; the Kingston Public Hospital at least twice; and the Rollington Town and the St Jago Health Centres as well as the Princess Margaret Hospital at least once.

Dr Ferguson pointed to the continuing deterioration of health services, including a shortage of staff, shortage of medication, long waiting times, long appointment times, absence of bed space, inappropriate diets in hospitals, and the absence of equipment such as a working CT scan machine at KPH, University Hospital and Cornwall Regional Hospital. Another critical element which Dr Ferguson said is absent from the sector is support and input from major stakeholders, including the Opposition.