Stop the abuse!
FED up with the alleged on the job abuse of health sector workers, Chairman of the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), George Duncan, is calling on offenders to cease the harassment of persons employed in the sector.
“Recently some things have been happening. People think that they can go into a clinic, a hospital or any of the health facilities and they can disrespect the staff. If you mistreat the staff how is it you expect the same staff to be kind to you and to serve you with pleasure and kindness and sympathy?” Duncan questioned, during the official opening of the upgraded Ulster Spring Health Centre in Trelawny on Monday.
“I am appealing to the persons who use the facility and all the members of the community to ensure that the staff is well taken care of and that the staff is at all times respected and that their services are appreciated.”
Duncan’s appeal was reinforced by Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson, who added that persons who abuse health-care workers should be reported to the police.
“The chairman raised the question of clients coming into our institution and really doing an injustice to our workers. I really want to call on our patients to stop it. We must recognise those who are giving us service and saving, in many instances, our lives. The trend we have seen recently must stop!
And where it occurs, we must not hesitate to bring the police into being.
Because where it is a police matter, the police must get involved even as we do our investigations,” Dr Ferguson argued.
But, the health minister was quick to add that health sector workers who abuse patients should also cease from doing so.
“But I must say equally well, there is a small group in the health sector that continue to give the health sector a bad name, you too, must stop. Whether you are doctor, whether you are nurse, whether you are community health aid or nurse, whether you are porter … because all of us are a part of the team. Whether you are dentist all of us must ensure that we give the best service.
And I am saying it is a small band, but when it happens there is a major outcry, and when the outcry comes the first person’s name they call is the minister,” Dr Ferguson argued.
Recently, a fight between two men that started in Duanvale, Trelawny, escalated at the Falmouth Public General Hospital when one of the combatants was attacked inside the Accident and Emergency Department.
The attack, plus the convergence of their relatives on the hospital compound with pickaxes, disrupted operations.
At the time, Jamaica Medical Doctors Association (JMDA) President Dr Alfred Dawes told the Jamaica Observer that the medical staff did not feel safe because of the situation outside the hospital.
In the meantime, Duncan also appealed to the workers to protect the recently renovated Ulster Spring health facility.
“I ask you to be eternally vigilant to take care of the facility.
You don’t want to open this nice place today (Monday) and if the minister comes around six months’ time it’s an embarrassment. We don’t want that. We are asking you to apply the most vigilance in taking care and seeing to the care of this facility. In other words, don’t allow people to vandalise the place or to mistreat the place. Be proud of it, it is for your own use,” he urged.
Some $9 million was spent to renovate and expand the facility, which serves about 10 communities in the southern section of Trelawny.
The project included an expanded dental care department, improved dressing and treatment areas, as well as repairs to the roofs of the buildings.
The project, which was carried out under the Primary Health Care Infrastructure Renewal Programme, was funded through the National Health Fund (NHF).