PORTLAND, Jamaica — Health Minister Christopher Tufton says he has requested the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to investigate a matter of alleged ill-treatment of a patient at the Port Antonio Hospital in Portland.

In a four-minute-forty-second video making the rounds on social media, a hospital patient is heard asking a nurse for medication as she had been in pain “from morning”.  

The nurse, who seemed unaware that she is being recorded, simply offers the patient a substitute over-the-counter pain killer, Cetamol.

However, the patient who made it known that she was prescribed a significantly stronger painkiller, Pethidine, as other medications did not help, stated that she was given the medication every six hours by the nurse on duty the day before.

“Doctor can prescribe, I don’t have to give,” the nurse then gruffly remarks. 

When the patient questioned the statement, the nurse simply repeats it and proceeds to ask if she would like the Cetamol.

The patient again refuses, noting that Cetamol could not ease her pain. 

Eventually, the nurse is seen getting up midway the conversation uttering “luckier dan me”, before leaving the room. 

The patient was left with the other nurse to whom she began directing her complaints. This nurse stated that the one who left the room was the nurse in charge, and that there was nothing she could do.

“So that’s how it is, when the doctors prescribe medication the nurse don’t have to give it?” the patient then asks. 

The patient, who at this point seemed frustrated, asks for the papers to be discharged.

Contacted by OBSERVER ONLINE, Tufton disclosed that he had asked the CMO to investigate. 

“The appropriate action, if the nurse had concerns, was to call the patient’s physician, document the interaction, specifically that the patient came requesting medication, which will allow the physician to make a referral to the appropriate service, Tufton said.

Acknowledging that he needed to know the circumstances surrounding the incident, Tufton said it nonetheless pointed to a “need for greater compassion in administration of public health services”. He said that the ministry will be developing a customer service programme called ‘Compassionate Care’ which he said would be rolled out soon.

Moya Hinds