Dear Editor,

It is no ordinary feat to live in Jamaica. Look at the long lines comprising the elderly, the lame, and blind at public hospitals and clinics. It is in the hearts of these folks that true strength lies.

People wait for a full day or more and are not seen by a doctor. There needs to be much better service. A quick interaction with medical professionals and a referral to get another date, months later, is not good enough. There are no seats for the crowds on the buses, so why, pray tell, should they be concerned about who gets a seat in any House or on any council?

Sadly, it is the elderly who, even in the battle for scare benefits and spoils, move in throngs to the polling stations. They are fixed here in Jamaica, for better or worse, so they vote. They, however, are not rewarded or shown any gratitude or respect.

They stay at the bottom of the barrel, not benefiting from improved social benefits. The handouts are invisible and the hands now too shaky to hold them.

Walking to the hospital, overnighting, queuing for another appointment, filling prescriptions. There is need for change and re-engineering, but simple ways must be found to make things better for the people. When will this happen, myriad decades plus?

The health care for our weak must expand with preventative medicine to stem the inevitable emergencies which cannot be resolved in light of limited resources. X-ray machines in institutions like National Chest Hospital are perpetually malfunctioning. The 70-year-old Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre which cares for the critically physically challenged lack objective diagnostic equipment, an X-ray machine, a pharmacy, and chemical laboratories. The situation at this time is untenable!

It is all gone.

UI Jem

jem.ul@yahoo.com